THE GREAT PLAINS 



By MR. PARRISH 

When Wilderness Was King. A Tale of the Illinois 
Country. Illustrated by the Kinneys. 

My Lady of the North. The Love Story of a Gray- 
Jacket. Illustrated by E. M. Ashe. 

A Sword of the Old Frontier. A Romance of the 

Time of Pontiac's Conspiracy. Illustrated by F. C. 

Yohn. 
Bob Hampton of Placer. Illustrated by Arthur L 

Keller. 
Beth Norvell. A Romance of the West. Illustrated 

by N. C. Wyeth. 

Each $i.so 

Historic Illinois. The Romance of the Earlier Days. 
With Map and Fifty Illustrations. Price $2.50 net. 

The Gre.^t Plains. The Romance of Western Amer- 
ican Exploration, Warfare, and Settlement, 1527-1870. 
With numerous illustrations. Price Si.ys «^'- 

A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago 



THE GREAT PLAINS 



THE ROMANCE OF WESTERN AMERICAN 

EXPLORATION, WARFARE, AND 

SETTLEMENT, 1 527-1870 



RANDALL PARRISH 

AUTHOR OF " When Wilderness was King," " My Lady of the 
North," "Historic Illinois," etc., etc. 




CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1907 



Copyright 

A. C. McClurg & Co. 

1907 

Published September 14, 1907 






. I wo CoolM Received I 

SEP 18 I90r I 

Cooyncht Entry 



E\)t iLakfgilie ^prtsB 

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
CHICAGO 



Eltia vahxmt is dphiratrd 

TO THOSE 

WHO, BY REASON OF THEIR COURAGE, PRIVATIONS, AND SACRIFICES 

RENDERED POSSIBLE THE WRITING OF THIS STORY 

OF AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENT, 

THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO WON THE 

GREAT PLAINS FROM SAVAGERY TO CIVILIZATION 



I hear the tread of Pioneers, 

Of Nations yet to be ; 
The first low wash of waves, where soon 

Shall roll a human sea. 

— Whittier, 



PREFACE 

HERETOFORE the romantic history of the 
Plains has never been condensed within the 
limits of a single volume. The facts herein nar- 
rated have been scattered throughout a multitude 
of books, some of which are named in the Note of 
Acknowledgment. In addition to these, it has been 
found necessary to consult files of newspapers, old 
magazines, and not a few unpublished manuscripts 
in the possession of various State Historical Socie- 
ties. The labor of collating and arranging material 
has been no small part of the task, and was supple- 
mented by extensive travel throughout the regions 
described. 

In treating of the Great Plains I have purposely 
omitted Texas. The story of the Lone Star State 
is so distinctly separated from that of the more cen- 
tral and northern Plains country, both as regards 
settlement and warfare, as to require greater space 
than could be afforded within a single volume. 

It would be presumptuous to suppose that a 
book covering so wide a field could be entirely de- 
void of errors; but I am confident that the work 
may be relied on for historical accuracy. 

There are two perfectly legitimate ways of 
writing history. One is to make a simple statement 

[vii] 



PREFACE 

of facts; the other, to clothe the statement in lan- 
guage fitted to appeal to the reader's imagination. 
It is perhaps unnecessary to say which method I 
prefer, the book itself being sufficiently illustrative. 
It is written largely for those to whom history has 
been heretofore dry and unpalatable, and my sole 
desire is that it may awaken within their hearts a 
fresh interest in those who were the pioneers in the 
redemption of the Great Plains. 

R. P. 

Chicago, May i, iQOy. 



Fviiil 



NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

THE following authorities have been used in the prepara- 
tion of this volume: Parkman's "A Half Century of 
Conflict " ; Hitchcock's " The Louisiana Purchase " ; 
Bancroft's " United States History "; Herbert Bancroft's " Colo- 
rado and Wyoming"; Chittenden's "History of the American Fur 
Trade "; Marcy's " Army Life on the Border," and " Overland 
Expeditions "; Winship's Edition, " The Journey of Coronado "; 
Inman's " Old Santa Fe Trail ", and " Old Salt Lake Trail"; 
Grinnell's " Story of the Indian " ; Hough's " Story of the Covi^- 
boy " ; Laut's " Story of the Trapper " ; Forsyth's " Story of the 
Soldier "; Gregg's " Commerce of the Prairies "; Dodge's " Our 
Wild Indians"; Belden's "The White Chief"; Brady's "In- 
dian Fights and Fighters " ; Spring's " Kansas " ; HoUoway's 
"History of Kansas"; Bowles's "Across the Continent"; Rich- 
ardson's " Beyond the Mississippi " ; Sanborn's " Life and Letters 
of John Brown "; Transactions Kansas Historical Society; Lum- 
mis's " Spanish Pioneers," and " Pioneer Transportation in 
America"; Reports of Lewis and Clark, Pike, and Long; 
American State Papers; Nebraska Historical Transactions; 
Custer's "Boots and Saddles"; and others referred to in the 
text. R. P. 



[ix] 



CONTENTS 



PART I.— EXPLORATION 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Nature of the Great Plains; Flora and 
Fauna 
II. The Indians of the Great Plains 

III. The First Spaniards . 

IV. The French Explorers 
V. The Expedition of Lewis and Clark 

VI. The Explorations of Pike and Long 

VII. The Fur-Traders 

VIII. Incidents during the Fur Trade 

IX. Beginnings of the Santa Fe Trade 

X. Incidents of the Santa Fe Trail 

XI. Early Transportation on the Plains 



17 
29 

41 
53 
61' 

71 
89 

97 
108 
121 
130 



PART II.— THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION 
I. The First Emigrants .... 140 
11. Early Army Service . . . .152 

III. During the War with Mexico . . 164 

IV. The Reign of the Prairie Schooner . • i73 
V. The Overland Route .... 182 

VI. The Overland Stage Lines . . . 192 

VII. Adventures and Tragedies on the Overland 204 
VIII. The Pony Express . . . .215 

IX. The Army on the Plains — The First En- 
counters ..... 225 
X. The Army on the Plains — During the Civil 

War . . . . .233 

M 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XI. The Army on the Plains — Massacre at Fort 

Philip Kearney .... 242 
XII. The Army on the Plains — Thirty-two 

against Three Thousand . . . 252 

XIII. The Army on the Plains — The Fight on 

the Arickaree .... 260 

XIV. The Army on the Plains — The Surprise of 

Black Kettle .... 272 

XV. The Army on the Plains — Incidents of In- 
dian War ..... 282 



PART III.— OCCUPATION 

I. The Beginning of Settlement 

II. The Struggle in Eastern Kansas 

III. Days of the Cattle Kings 

IV. Building the First Railroad 
V. Border Towns . 

VI. Outlaws and Desperadoes 

VII. Frontier Scouts and Guides 

VIII. Mushroom Towns 

IX. In 1870 . 



289 
300 

314 
326 

335 
344 
355 
366 

376 



[xii] 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

The Great Plains .... Frontispiece 

An Indian Encampment in the Bad Lands . . 20 

The Buffalo Hunt . . . . .26 

Types of Indian Chiefs . . . .38 

Cabaca de Vaca and his Companions . . 46 

Scenes during the Indians' Supremacy on the 
Plains: The Prairie — An Indian Buffalo 
Hunt . . . . . .64 

Portrait of Lieutenant Zebulon Pike . . 72 

Pike's Peak . . . . . -78 

Fort Clark, on the Missouri River . . .88 

Fort Union, on the Missouri River . . .92 

Incidents in the Experience of Emigrants: A 
Mirage — A Wagon Train — A Ford over the 
River ...... 102 

A Caravan arriving at Sante Fe . . .118 

Early Indian Migration .... 132 

Primitive Modes of Traffic across the Plains: The 
Carreta of the South — A Mule Path and 
Pack Train — One of the Earliest American 
Pack Trains . . . . .136 

Mormon Hand-cart Emigrants en route to Utah . 148 
Scenes picturing the Settlement of Utah by the 
Mormons: Early Street Scene in Salt Lake 
City — The Cabin Home of a Mormon Family . 158 
An Early Scene at Kansas City, Missouri . -174 

Frontier Forts: Fort Laramie — Fort Bridger . 190 

[xiii] 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The United States Army in Service on the Plains: 
In Conflict with Winter Storms — The Last 
Stand — On the March .... 212 

Scenes incident to Travel across the Plains: A 
Mule Train at the Ford — The Southern 
Overland Mail Stage .... 220 

Scenes Characteristic of Indian Attack and the 
Defence of the Settlers: The Last Stand — 
Emigrants repelling an Attack — Defending 
the Wagon Train ..... 228 

Indian Life on the Great Plains: Indians execut- 
ing A War Dance — An Indian Encampment . 238 

Red Cloud, Chief of the Ogalla Sioux . 254 

Scenes Characteristic of Indian Attacks: A Night 
Attack upon the Camp — An Emigrant Train 
preparing for defence .... 264 

Scenes of Indian Warfare on the Great Plains: 
An Attack on the Overland Stage — Custer's 
Charge on Black Kettle's Camp — The Scout's 
Last Shot ...... 278 

Emigrants on the Trail .... 292 

missourians going to kansas to " vote " . . 302 

Border Ruffians " going over to wipe out Law- 
rence "...... 308 

Scenes along the Line of the First Railro.^d: 
Railroad-building across the Plains — An 
Attack on the Construction Gang — Type of 
Towns which sprung up along the New Line . 330 

Transportation and Communication across the 
Plains . . . . . .338 

Portrait of Kit Carson . . . -356 

Portrait of James P. Beckwourth . . . 362 

[xiv] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 



THE GREAT PLAINS 



PART I.— EXPLORATION, 



CHAPTER I 

NATURE OF THE GREAT PLAINS; FLORA 

AND FAUNA 

Situation and Extent of the Great Plains 

FROM a purely technical viewpoint the Plains 
properly form only a comparatively small por- 
tion of that extensive area of prairie country 
the story of which is to be told in these pages. Yet, 
by common consent as well as historical precedent, 
the term has become quite generally applied as de- 
scriptive of all that vast region of grass land and 
arid desert which extended like an uncharted sea 
of green and brown desolation between the valley 
of the Missouri upon the north and east, and the 
foothills of the Rockies. 

This truly immense territory, extending from 
about the centre of the Dakotas southward to the 
Rio Grande, possessed an average width of five 
hundred miles. It embraced Texas, Indian Terri- 
tory, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and the larger 

[17] 



THE GREAT^LAINS 

part of the two Dakotas, together with a considera- 
ble portion of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyo- 
ming. While largely similar in topography, it was 
nevertheless varied by numerous river courses, by 
the outcropping of low mountains, by shifting 
sandhills, by occasional strips of woodland, and by 
the gradual divergence from rolling, luxuriant 
prairie to level, sterile plain. Over all, however, 
there remained a peculiar sameness from which 
there was no escape. Mile after mile revealed the 
same vast picture of solitude, haunting in its lone- 
liness, baffling in its similarity of outline. 

Description of the Surface 

Along the rivers — usually shallow streams, the 
water often red with matter in suspension, the bot- 
toms treacherous with quicksand — there were 
commonly miles of rough, broken land, frequently 
terminating in high bluffs, and these occasionally 
traversed by ravines of considerable depth and ab- 
ruptness. Trees, growing sparsely, and deformed by 
wind, clung precariously to these steep hillsides, 
while cottonwoods and willows fringed the banks 
of smaller streams, usually visible for long distances. 
There were considerable areas of sand, constantly 
shifting before the violence of storms, the mounds 
assuming grotesque shapes; such trackless wastes 
were usually destitute of water and vegetation. 
Patches of alkali, white and poisonous, stared forth 
from the surrounding green, rendering the streams 

[i8] 



NATURE OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

brackish, and impossible for man or beast. To 
north and south the Black Hills, the Wichita Buttes, 
and the Washita Range rose from out the very 
heart of the surrounding desolation, tree-covered 
and rocky. Here and there " bad lands," ugly and 
drear, gave unpleasant variety. In widely remote 
regions odd growths of black-jack extended for 
leagues, sometimes nearly impenetrable, so closely 
interlaced were the trees; while toward the more 
western mountain boundary vast canyons formed al- 
most impassable barriers, and isolated buttes arose 
like ghosts from out the enveloping plain, assuming 
fantastic shapes under the relentless chisel of the 
elements. 

A remarkable region was found in the sand hills 
of what is now Nebraska. These, rounded and pos- 
sessing a thin covering of turf, often of considera- 
ble height, are so exactly like each other that it is 
almost impossible to distinguish between them. 
They afiford absolutely no guidance, but rather pro- 
duce the confusing and baffling effect of a maze; 
and once off the trail, the unfortunate traveller be- 
comes completely lost. Farther north, between the 
Black Hills and the Missouri, lie the Mauvaises 
Terres of the French. Here Nature seems to have 
exerted herself in a search after the repulsive. The 
whole country is a series of gullies, with hills rising 
above them carved by the elements into the most 
fantastic forms, unlike anything to be found else- 
where. The soil appears oily, becoming so slippery 

[19] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

when wet as to make the climbing of the steep 
slopes almost impossible. On these barren, ash- 
colored hills scarcely the slightest vegetation 
thrives. Little animal life, other than the snake 
and the lizard, is to be found, and all about ex- 
tends a scene of complete desolation. 

Yet, considered as a whole, and as the earlier 
travellers certainly perceived it, this area was com- 
posed of irregular, rolling prairie, bearing the ap- 
pearance of innumerable petrified waves ever ex- 
tending toward the western horizon, until, growing 
continually less and less pronounced, they finally 
settled down into vast level stretches, forming the 
Plains proper bordering the Rockies. Throughout 
this entire distance, although usually imperceptible 
to the eye, the earth's surface had a steady upward 
trend. The land became more arid, the rainfall 
perceptibly less, the waters of the rivers diminished 
in volume, the atmosphere grew lighter, and the 
luxuriant herbage of the Eastern prairies changed 
into the short, nutritious buffalo grass of the West- 
ern plateaus. All tree growth completely disap- 
peared, nothing remaining to break the drear 
desolation except the ghostly cactus, or the diminu- 
tive Spanish bayonet, with here and there a naked 
sage bush, grim flower of the desert. 

Three Distinct Belts to be Crossed 

To the traveller advancing due west from the 
Missouri there were three distinct belts, averaging 

[20] 



NATURE OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

about one hundred and fifty miles each, through 
which his slow-moving caravan passed before at- 
taining to the mountains. The first was agricultur- 
ally rich, a magnificent prairie land, possessing 
abundant rain, fertile soil, sufficient timber along 
the numerous water-courses, and in every direction 
delighting the eye. The next hundred and fifty 
miles, stretching from about the 98th meridian to 
the loist, brought a notable change. The rolling, 
verdure-decked hills, began to sink away into mo- 
notonous plains; the soil became less rich, and was 
streaked with alkali; the waters of the streams di- 
minished and grew unfit to drink; while vegetation 
became dwarfed and scanty. The cactus, the sage- 
brush, and the prairie dog were much in evidence. 
A suffocating dust rose from the trail under the 
horses' feet. The third division of the journey, ex- 
tending to the 104th meridian, was that hilly region 
which led on to those great mountain ranges already 
plainly in sight. Here the traveller was in the midst 
of rocky, barren desolation, at first a drear, grim 
expanse of desert, but gradually improving in veg- 
etation and water as he approached closer to the 
mountains. 

Perils of the Journey 

But not only in its surface configuration was this 
a peculiar country. Its fierce storms, its mirages, 
its perilous prairie fires, the swiftness of attack by 
its mounted Indians, rendered it distinct from all 
other frontiers. Except in the spring of the year 

[21] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the prairie trails were easily followed. In time of 
rain the fords across the streams became dangerous, 
the prairie roads were transformed into quagmires, 
and no shelter was obtainable. The storms, at what- 
ever season they occurred, were fierce and terrific. 
Those of summer were cyclonic, often working 
great damage, while in winter the awful blizzard 
was almost certain death to any unfortunate caught 
unprotected upon the open plain. During the sum- 
mer season, after the prairie grass had become long 
and dry, destructive fires raging over immense dis- 
tricts threatened terrible disaster to all in their 
course. When driven by a strong wind such a fire 
became a veritable travelling furnace, bringing 
death to everything in its passage. The fleetest 
horse could not outrun its leaping flames, and the 
only probability of escape lay in prompt back-firing. 
At night the glare of miles of flame made a mag- 
nificent spectacle if the observer could view the 
scene from some point of safety. 

Perhaps the most distressing phenomena of the 
plains were the mirages. These were more no- 
ticeable in the south, being particularly vivid in the 
neighborhood of the Cimarron Desert. In the midst 
of the gray desolation would suddenly appear a 
sparkling river, or a gleaming lake. Everything 
would seem perfect, a breeze rippling the water, 
the shores distinctly outlined, yet it all faded away 
upon approach. Occasionally the mirage would as- 
sume other forms, — a large caravan, or a splendid 

[22] 



NATURE OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

city, — but ever it was a dissolving picture, v^hich 
tantalized many a w^earied traveller. 

The Flora 

The flora and fauna of this vast region during 
the years of its invasion by the white man may be 
briefly summarized. The most important and prac- 
tically the only tree was the Cottonwood. The best 
known species was the broad-leaved, found along 
the lower water-courses, where the trunk occasion- 
ally attained to five feet in diameter, with a height 
of seventy. Higher up in the foot-hills the leaf be- 
came narrower. Cottonwood groves were favorite 
camping-places on the long trail, furnishing fuel, 
as well as logs for huts, and even food for horses. 
The bark was nutritious, and the animals not only 
liked it, but throve upon it as well as upon oats. In 
some of the valleys the quaking ash?was found, usu- 
ally growing in small compact copses. It was a 
good wood for fuel. Toward the mountains, pine, 
spruce, balsam, and fir abounded, while cedars were 
very numerous, but generally distorted and mis- 
shapen by the never-ceasing winds: Along most of 
the prairie streams there were willow growths, 
often forming extensive thickets, almost impenetra- 
ble, and closely crowding the bank. 

Although the plains and most of the foot-hills 
and bad lands were absolutely destitute of trees, 
there were occasional extensive forests which be- 
came celebrated. The country about the Black Hills 

[23] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

was heavily wooded. On the head-waters of the 
Neosho was the famous forest of Council Grove, a 
great camping-spot for caravans bound for Santa 
Fe. The Big Timbers of the Arkansas consisted of 
a large grove of cottonwoods extending for several 
miles along the northern bank of that stream, a lit- 
tle distance below the site of Bent's Fort. The Cross 
Timbers, composed mostly of dwarfish, stunted 
trees, was farther south, extending from the Brazos 
River in Texas, northwest to the Canadian. A 
branch ran westward across the Canadian North 
i'L Fork. On the more open plains of the north the 
•f^ .^ only growth was sage-brush and grease-wood^ while 
%^* to the southward the cactus and the Spanish bayonet 
reigned supreme. In Colorado the prickly pear 
was common; an^ on the drear plains of New Mex- 
ico the giant cactus took weird, fantastic forms. 

But the most important vegetable productions 
of the entire region were the grasses. There were 
extensive barren spots, drear desolate deserts, but, 
speaking generally, no region in the world ever ex- 
celled the Plains as a grazing country. On the low- 
er prairies and in the stream bottoms the growth 
was luxuriant, yet even upon the high plains, the 
table-lands and hills, were found grasses of value. 
One peculiarity of these grasses is that they retain 
their nutritive power after the season of growth is 
over, even under the snow of winter. The three 
chief ones were the grarrmia grass, the buffalo grass, 

[24] 



NATURE OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

and the bunch grass. Of these the last was most 
widespread and valuables 7/ *t^»^ 7- o Icl^J^ ^ /*«**/ 

The Fauna 

In this extensive region the most important ani- 
mals were the buffaloes, not only because of their 
number but also owing to their value to the Indian. 
The buffalo furnished sustenance for all the tribes 
of the Plains. Almost everything the Indian re- 
quired was furnished by the buffalo — his food, his 
bed, his clothes, his weapons of war and chase, his 
boats, his saddles, and most of the articles required 
for domestic use. The story of the buffalo can nev- 
er be written in its entirety. Beyond doubt the 
range of these strange shaggy beasts, called by 
the first Spanish explorers " deformed cattle," at 
one time extended from the Rocky Mountains to the 
Alleghanies. But steadily they were forced west- 
ward. It is impossible to contend that this retreat 
was caused by the advance of the white man, for it 
largely antedated white occupancy. As early as 
1807 the range of the buffalo had receded as far as 
the 97th meridian. When first known to early ex- 
plorers of the Plains the great herds roamed from 
the Missouri to the Rockies, and from near the Gulf 
to 60 degrees north latitude. The multitude of these 
animals, within the memory of men yet living, 
was almost beyond belief. No enumeration was 
ever satisfactory, but it is incontrovertible that they 

[25] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

numbered millions upon millions. Railroad trains 
and steamboats have been held up for hours to per- 
mit vast herds to pass. Innumerable trails worn by 
their hoofs are yet visible. The slight statistics re- 
lating to their slaughter in later years are evidence 
of the vastness of their original numbers. The 
American Fur Company in 1840 sent to St. Louis 
sixty-seven thousand robes, and in 1848, one hun- 
dred and ten thousand. Twenty-five thousand buf- 
falo tongues were brought to that city the same year. 
As early as i860 it was estimated by competent 
authority that at least 250,000 buffalo were being 
killed yearly. As late as 1871 Colonel Dodge 
writes of riding for twenty-five miles in western 
Kansas through an immense herd, the whole coun- 
try about him appearing a solid mass of moving 
buffalo. In that year the animals moved northward 
on their annual migration in a column from twenty- 
five to fifty miles wide and of unknown depth from 
front to rear. In the later migrations, as observed 
by whites, the buffalo columns usually crossed the 
Arkansas River somewhere between Great Bend 
and Big Sand Creek. Colonel Dodge estimates that 
in the three years 1872-74 at least five million buf- 
falo were slaughtered for their hides. 

Other animals having habitat on the Great 
Plains may be considered briefly. Along nearly all 
the streams was to be found the beaver, while out 
upon the prairies, far from his mountain lair, wan- 
dered the ferocious grizzly bear in search of food. 

[26] 



NATURE OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

The black bear seldom left the foot-hills. Elk, vari- 
ous species of deer, and antelope were numerous. 
The wolf was the most ignoble of the inhabitants of 
the Plains. The gray wolf was largest and most 
troublesome, although the coyote made night hide- 
ous with its unending yowls. Panthers and wild- 
cats were frequently encountered, while the prairie 
dog was almost always in evidence in the more des- 
olate regions. 

Next to the buffalo, however, the most impor- 
tant animal of the Plains was the wild horse. The 
horse was a comparatively recent arrival, not native 
to America, but introduced by the Spaniards into 
Mexico. It multiplied with great rapidity, over- 
spreading all the southern Plains, where it was cap- 
tured by the Indians, and gradually taken north. 
As early as 1700 it was in quite general use. The 
wild horses ran in droves often of considerable size, 
under the leadership of a stallion. They were taken 
usually by the lasso, although occasionally "creas- 
ing" was the method employed. This consisted of 
shooting a rifle ball through the top of the neck so 
as to cut a nerve, and render the animal for a short 
time insensible. Thousands were caught for the mar- 
ket in the early days of white occupancy, and as 
late as 1894 a few bands were still running free in 
the Texas Pan-Handle. 

Transformation Wrought by Civilized Man 

We have now before us a fairly accurate pen- 
picture of the Great Plains as they appeared when 

[27] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

first viewed by the eyes of white explorers. To 
those of this present generation, who view plain and 
prairie from the windows of express trains, the orig- 
inal desolation of the broad expanse can scarcely be 
conceivable. To-day farmhouses, growing cities, 
and prosperous towns dot the miles, railways anni- 
hilate distance, while foreign trees, transplanted and 
cultivated with care, beautify the changed land- 
scape. The labor and skill of civilized man, the 
gradual increase of rainfall, the development of 
irrigation, have all combined to work a modern mir- 
acle, redeeming the arid waste. The desert has 
become transformed into a garden. Only occasion- 
ally may the searching eye discern evidences of what 
once was, and that so few years since, a sterile, sav- 
age-haunted desolation, in midst of which adven- 
turous souls toiled and died, or struggled and 
achieved. The American frontier has ever proven 
a developer of character, and a scene of constantly 
recurring contest against the perils of the wilder- 
ness and against savagery. But the Plains produced 
a peculiar type of pioneer, — brother, indeed, to him 
of the Eastern woods and mountains, yet changed 
and marked by the environment amid which he 
wrought his destiny and lived his life. The story 
of his struggle and triumph is unsurpassed in the 
annals of white endeavor. 



[28] 



CHAPTER II 
THE INDIANS OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

The Prehistoric Period 

THE history of this vast prairie land, from that 
far-off age when immense ice masses left 
their marks on its surface to the time of the 
coming of the first adventurous Spaniard, is an un- 
written, untraceable story. We may believe much, 
yet can know but little. Tradition here and there 
slightly lifts an edge of the curtain, but merely to 
afford glimpses of savagery. No doubt centuries 
of conflict had been waged ; tribes had arisen to pow- 
er, only to be annihilated; others had been driven 
from place to place; yet all those ages had wit- 
nessed no more than a slight uplifting from the 
lowest form of savagery to a rude barbarism. Any 
serious effort to reveal the secrets of this period 
would be but wasted energy. 

But from the earliest ages the Plains must have 
been marvellous hunting-grounds, the natural habi- 
tat of a great variety of animal life, and consequent- 
ly overrun by aborigines in the chase. From this 
cause alone the struggle for possession must have 
been unending, fierce, and relentless. From the 
Missouri to the Rockies, during unknown centuries, 
was a trail of blood, a continuous scene of tribal ha- 
tred, of unbridled ferocity. Undoubtedly there 

[29] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

were spaces of comparative neutrality, yet safety 
was never assured when wandering parties of hun- 
ters met by chance in the wilderness. Hatred, jeal- 
ousy, revenge held supreme sway; the war-club and 
the tomahawk were the rulers of the wide domain. 
While he was of the same race, and in nature 
similar, the environment of the Plains Indian made 
him in many respects different from the red man of 
the Eastern forests and mountains. Equally savage, 
relentless, and courageous, the wide open space of 
his home had marked him with certain characteris- 
tics which made him a yet more dreaded antagonist. 
Above all, he possessed the horse, which afforded a 
vast advantage in a military sense, the celerity of 
movement being advantageous both for attack and 
escape. It was the mounted Indian with whom the 
pioneers of the prairies were obliged to contend in 
their struggle for possession. 

Condition of the Indians at the Arrival of the Spaniards 

While it remains true that an Indian is always 
an Indian, yet each tribe has its own peculiarities. 
In North America, north of Mexico, there were 
nearly sixty distinct languages spoken, which ap- 
parently had no relation to one another, not even a 
common origin. Almost as widely different were 
varius tribes in culture. The Northern Indians, 
were, at the coming of the whites, practically in 
the Stone Age of development. The use of metals 
was unknown. Native copper was indeed utilized 

[30] 



THE INDIANS OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

to some extent, but it was merely hammered into 
usefulness. The Indian's weapons were of stone, 
his clothing of skin, his pottery of the simplest kind, 
his subsistence derived almost entirely from hunting 
and fishing. Some slight agriculture was practised, 
such as the raising of corn, beans, and squashes, but 
the chase was the main means of support. 

Locations and Characteristics of the Tribes 

The greater number of the Plains tribes were 
wandering and predatory, although a few along the 
Missouri, and in the Southwest dwelt in permanent 
villages. Even the predatory tribes had some par- 
ticular section to which they always returned, yet 
they were essentially a nomadic people, taking long 
journeys for purposes of the chase or war. Those 
tribes with which we have most directly to do in this 
narrative belonged to several great linguistic stocks 
— the Algonquin, the Siouan, the Shoshonean, the 
Caddoan, and the Kiowan. Of the first, those re- 
siding within the district to be considered were the 
Arapahoes, the Cheyennes, and the Grosventres of 
the prairie. The tribes of the Siouan stock occupied 
nearly the whole of the valley of the Missouri with 
a wide extent of territory on either side. Those of 
special interest in the story of the Plains were the 
Mandans, Sioux, Poncas, Omahas, lowas, Otoes, 
Kansas, and Osages. Of the great Shoshone fam- 
ily only the Comanches roamed over the prairie 
country, their region being south of the Arkansas. 

[31] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

The Caddoans were represented by two tribes, the 
Pawnees and the Aricaras. The Kiowas were a dis- 
tinct stock. 

We will endeavor to take up these tribes and 
locate them as they were first known to the whites. 
The Grosventres of the prairie were a part of the 
great Blackfeet nation, having their home in the 
mountains to the northwest. They were a relent- 
lessly warlike tribe, yet always maintained a spe- 
cially friendly relation with the Arapahoes, who 
held the country about the South Fork of the Platte. 
It was the custom of the Grosventres to visit the 
Arapahoes every two or three years. The result of 
their visits was invariably war with other tribes 
through whose boundaries they were obliged to 
pass, and incidentally with any unfortunate white 
men encountered on the way. Trappers and fur- 
traders suffered greatly at their hands. The Ara- 
pahoes of the South Platte were somewhat inferior 
in stature to the Grosventres, but resembled them in 
face and dress. Their distinctive tribal feature was 
the tattooed breast. They also permitted their hair 
to grow to great length, even occasionally using 
false hair. They were a wandering tribe, living in 
tents of skin. During the early days of exploration 
they numbered about two thousand five hundred 
souls. They had little trouble with neighboring In- 
dians, excepting the Pawnees and Utes, but were 
hostile to the whites, until they became interested 
in the fur trade about 1832, when Captain Ganr 

[32] 



THE INDIANS OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

established a trading-post in their country, and won 
their confidence. They were natural traders, and 
were considered more honest than most Indians. 

Tribes Met by the Earliest Explorers 

The earliest explorers in the fur trade came 
more directly in contact with those tribes, mostly of 
the Siouan stock, inhabiting the valley of the Mis- 
souri. Of these the Mandans were particularly in- 
teresting. Early writers had much to say of this 
people because their country was for many years 
the farthest point achieved in the fur trade. Up 
to 1830 very few travellers got beyond the villages 
of the Mandans. Before the arrival of the whites 
they were a great nation, numbering at least six 
thousand souls, and occupying nine villages. But 
war and smallpox ravaged these towns until, at the 
visit of Lewis and Clark, they numbered scarcely 
two thousand. In 1837 ^^^ smallpox again visited 
them, and only about thirty of the tribe survived. 
They were a station-ary people, living in permanent 
villages, and relying largely upon agriculture for 
subsistence, although great hunters of the buffalo. 
Of fine appearance, robust and broad-shouldered, 
they were a peaceably disposed tribe, and remained 
on friendly terms with the whites. 

What is now the State of South Dakota was in 
early days the home of the Sioux, or, in their own 
language, the Dakotas. Their numbers, when first 
brought into relationship with the fur-traders, was 

[33] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

probably fifteen thousand. In physical appearance 
they were typical Plains Indians, of stalwart 
physique and great endurance. They were a no- 
madic race, their wanderings taking them far in 
every direction, and were exceedingly warlike, be- 
ing constantly in battle against their neighbors. 
They were divided into three tribes — the Yanktons, 
the Yanktonais or Yanktons of the Plains, and the 
Tetons. The first of these dwelt along the Missouri 
River, in the valleys of the James, the Vermilion, 
and the Big Sioux, extending even as far east as 
the Des Moines. They numbered about a thousand, 
and gave the whites but little trouble. The Yank- 
tonais, numbering about two thousand five hundred, 
were the most dreaded among the Sioux. They oc- 
cupied the upper valleys of the James and the Big 
Sioux, ranging eastward to the Red River of the 
North, and west a long distance up the Missouri. 
A favorite pastime was to ambuscade the traders' 
boats on the river. The Tetons was the largest 
tribe, containing five thousand souls. They dwelt 
mostly west of the Missouri, overspreading the 
country to the Black Hills and the North Platte; 
the Ogallalas composed the more southern branch, 
dwelling near the head-waters of the White and 
Niobrara Rivers. 

The most dangerous Indians encountered by the 
Missouri River fur-traders were the Aricaras, or 
Rees, a tribe of the Caddoan stock. This people 
held their place in the very heart of the great 

[34] 



THE INDIANS OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

Sioux nation, and the remains of their ancient vil- 
lages, used in the day of their power, could be 
traced all the way from the Niobrara to the Cannon 
Ball along the Missouri. When Lewis and Clark 
visited them they numbered three thousand six hun- 
dred. Previous to 1830 these Indians lived in clay 
huts similar to those of the Mandans. Physically 
they were tall and well formed, and their women 
were considered the handsomest on the Missouri. 
So far as the whites were concerned the Aricaras 
were always treacherous and warlike. It was im- 
possible to trust them in any way; they were friends 
to-day, and bitter enemies to-morrow. 

The Cheyennes and Pawnees 

Leaving the valley of the Missouri and moving 
westward to the eastern and southern base of the 
Black Hills, the traveller entered the country of the 
Cheyennes, who were of Algonquin stock. How 
long this people occupied that district, or from 
whence they came, is uncertain. That they were 
kindred to the Arapahoes seems probable, and as 
early* as 1820 many of the tribe seceded and joined 
the other. By 1840 all the remainder had moved 
south, where they also became affiliated with their 
kindred. Misfortune had made of them wanderers, 
but they were always a virile race, magnificent 
horsemen and superb warriors. While ever at war 
with surrounding tribes, with the whites they were 
usually at peace, although when they took the war- 

[35] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

path they proved dangerous enemies. Their prin- 
cipal traffic was in horses, and this trade led them 
to become great travellers across the prairies. 

South and east, within the present limits of the 
State of Nebraska, their centre of power the Loup 
Fork of the Platte, was the great nation of the 
Pawnees. They possessed four distinct villages, or 
divisions, the Grand Pawnees, the Republican 
Pawnees, the Noisy Pawnees, and the Pawnee 
Loups. The latter were probably a conquered peo- 
ple at one time associated with the Aricaras. The 
Tapage, or Noisy Pawnees, were the least impor- 
tant; they were not mentioned at all by Pike, who 
visited this country in 1806. Fourteen years later 
Long found the Pawnees living about sixty miles 
above the mouth of the Loup. The Grand Pawnees 
were farthest down stream and numbered about 
three thousand five hundred. Three miles above 
were the Republican Pawnees with a population of 
one thousand, while the Loups, four miles beyond, 
had two thousand. They were village tribes, being 
agriculturists as well as hunters, and dwelt in 
lodges, some of which were fully sixty feet in diam- 
eter, circular in form, having conical roofs of easy 
slope. The Pawnees were tall, slender, but well 
muscled. They excelled in horsemanship, having 
no superiors on the Plains. Though they possessed 
permanent villages, they were great wanderers, but 
generally travelled to the south or southwest, being 
frequently encountered along the Arkansas and on 
the old Santa Fe Trail. They fought with all sur- 

[36] 



THE INDIANS OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

rounding tribes, and made no steadfast alliances. 
During many years they were the terror of those 
traders who were obliged to traverse their country 
or to skirt its borders. In earlier years of explora- 
tion they held friendly relations with the Spaniards, 
and exhibited great hostility to American advance. 
The fur-traders never built a permanent post in 
their country, but met and traded with them at 
Council Bluffs. 

The Indians of the Missouri Valley 

Along the lower valley of the Missouri were 
found the Poncas, the Omahas, the Kansas, and the 
Osages. These were at one time a single nation 
dwelling in the Ohio Valley near the mouth of the 
Wabash. The cause of separation is unknown, but 
on coming West the Osages and Kansas settled in 
the valleys of the streams now bearing their names, 
while the others pressed on, the Omahas halting 
on the west bank of the Missouri above the mouth 
of the Platte, and the Poncas near the mouth of the 
Niobrara. At the coming of the first white traders 
the latter had been reduced by smallpox and war 
to barely two hundred souls, and the Omahas 
scarcely numbered four hundred. The Kansas tribe 
numbered one thousand five hundred. All these 
people were friendly to the whites, and figure little 
in the romantic history of the Plains. The Osages 
were the most important of the four divisions, being 
the first Indians of the prairies to open a regular 
trade with the whites. For many years previous to 

[37] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

1800 (exact dates unknown), Pierre Chouteau had 
business relations in their villages, and at that time 
Manuel Lisa obtained Spanish permission to estab- 
lish a permanent trading-post in their country. The 
struggle between these two traders divided the tribe. 
While generally friendly, the Osages were inclined 
to organize marauding parties, which did much 
injury to small companies passing through their 
neighborhood. 

As previously mentioned, the country bordering 
the South Platte was the home of the Arapahoes, 
whose headquarters were near the present site of the 
city of Denver. Here these Indians conducted a 
sort of fair, exchanging articles procured from the 
Spanish on the south for the more northern furs. 
The word Arapahoe is said to mean " he who buys, 
or trades." Closely associated with them in the 
earliest days of white exploration were the Kiowas. 
Later, during the struggle for possession, a yet 
stronger alliance was made by this latter tribe with 
the Comanches. For many years the Kiowa war- 
riors roamed freely over the entire Arapahoe and 
Comanche country, extending from the South Platte 
to the Brazos. Their favorite rendezvous seems to 
have been the valley of the Arkansas near the mouth 
of the Purgatory River. The Kiowas were little 
known by name in the early fur trade, but prob- 
ably many an atrocity charged to the Comanches 
or the Arapahoes was really committed by these 
wanderers. A late authority refers to them as being 
"the most predatory and bloodthirsty" of the 

[38] 





TYPES OF INDIAN CHIEFS 



PAWNEE TRIBE 
OMAHA TRIBE 



OSAGE TRIBE 
MANDAN TRIBE 



THE INDIANS OF THE GREAT PLAINS 

prairie tribes; and adds, ''They have probably 
killed more white men in proportion to their num- 
ber than any of the others." 

The Comanches resided to the south of the Ar- 
kansas River, occupying portions of what is now 
Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. They were 
the only tribe of the great Shoshone family dwell- 
ing exclusively upon the Plains. In the fullest 
sense they were a wandering people, perhaps the 
most restless of all American tribes. In the wide 
region they controlled, it is impossible to name any 
particular spot which they held as a favorite resi- 
dence. They moved north and south according to 
the season, but otherwise merely as fortune dictated. 
The wealth of the Comanche, and the centre of his 
interest, was the horse. The tribe were probably 
the most expert riders of the Western Plains, being 
trained from infancy. Their remarkable skill in 
the handling of horses was the wonder of all who 
witnessed it. They marked their animals with a 
peculiar slit in the ear, and neither love nor money 
could induce them to part with a favorite mount. 
In personal characteristics they resembled their 
neighbors to the north, the Arapahoes, but, owing 
to the southern climate, they wore less clothing. 
One peculiarity was that they did not greatly care 
for liquor. From the first they were a dangerous 
tribe, always at war with both red and white. For 
years they were the terror of the Plains, dreaded 
from the Arkansas to the Rio Grande del Norte. 
Every inch of white advance through their country 

[39] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

had to be fought for, and they made the Santa Fe 
Trail a trail of blood. 

Such were the inhabitants of the Great Plains 
when the pioneers of the conquering white race first 
ventured to set foot on that broad domain — widely 
differing tribes of Indians, many at war with each 
other, a few in alliances of peace. A small section 
was held as neutral ground, possibly the southern 
portion of what is now Kansas; but over that 
roamed hunting parties of Pawnees, Arapahoes, 
Kiowas, and Comanches, the fighting tribes, and 
wherever they met there was battle to the death. 
Magnificent warriors all of them, superb horsemen, 
loving to struggle with all the ferocity of wild ani- 
mals. Jealous of their hunting-grounds, they were 
as one in their desire to keep back white invasion, 
and in the clash of arms they turned the prairies 
red. To plainsmen and soldiers, Spaniards and 
Americans, they proved foemen worthy of their 
steel. 



[40! 



CHAPTER III 
THE FIRST SPANIARDS 

Early Spanish Explorations 

THE earliest exploration of the New World, 
after the discovery by Columbus, took place 
to the south, and was performed by soldiers and 
adventurers of Spain. It was most natural that the 
shores bordering the Gulf of Mexico should be first 
invaded from the West Indies, and the wealth of 
Mexico was a magnet to attract the invaders. As a 
result, that country was in Spanish hands long be- 
fore the vast region now known as the United States 
had even been penetrated by explorers. Expeditions 
bound westward had here and there touched its 
shores, much of the coast-line of Florida had been 
traced, and De Pineda had discovered by accident 
the mouth of the Mississippi; but the vast continent 
within remained unknown and mysterious. 

Cabeza de Vaca's Travels from Florida to Mexico 

Eight years after De Pineda's brief pause on the 
Louisiana coast, and in the year 1527, only thirty- 
five years after Columbus placed foot on Cat Island, 
the first Spaniard penetrated that interior. This 
man was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the treas- 
urer of an expedition sent from Spain for the ex- 
ploration of Florida. The commander of his com- 
pany was Panfilo de Narvaez. The experience of 

[41] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

these explorers was frightful. They struggled 
across Florida from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf. 
Here they built rude boats, and killed their horses 
for food. The manes and tails were utilized for 
ropes; stirrups and spurs were made into tools and 
nails, and the shirts of the men were pieced together 
for sails. Thus equipped, the miserable company 
put to sea. Ignorant of their position, they hoped 
to reach Mexico and the Spanish settlements. 
Skirting the shore, they had just passed the mouth 
of the Mississippi when a severe storm wrecked 
their five boats, and only fifteen men survived. 
These were cast upon an island. 

Of this remnant all but four were slain by the 
Indians. The survivors were made prisoners, and 
separated, not meeting again for six years. Cabeza 
de Vaca, the only one of the party who has left a 
record of these events, was held by his savage mas- 
ters in what is now eastern Texas and western Louis- 
iana. His treatment was that of a slave, although 
finally he was permitted to act as a medicine man, 
and even trusted to conduct trade. On one of these 
trading journeys he travelled as far north as the 
Red River, thus penetrating for a considerable dis- 
tance into the land of the Great Plains, and becom- 
ing the first white man to behold the " hunchbacked 
cows," as the early Spanish writers termed the buf- 
faloes. At some point, now unknown, but certainly 
west of the Sabine River, he became reunited with 
his three surviving companions. These were Do- 
rantes, Castillo Maldonado, and a negro called 

[42] 



THE FIRST SPANIARDS 

Stephen. The four succeeded in escaping together 
from their savage captors, and made their way 
slowly westward through the regions of various 
tribes, finding safety by pretending to be medicine 
men. Their hope was to reach the Spanish settle- 
ment in Mexico; but historians differ widely as to 
the route followed in their long wanderings. Some 
contend that the four strayed as far north as the 
Arkansas, but it seems far more probable that their 
journey was over the southern Plains, crossing the 
Rio Pecos not far above its junction with the Rio 
Grande. De Vaca wrote an account of his expe- 
riences, and, without doubt, his little party were the 
first whites to traverse the Great Plains and gaze 
upon the towering Rockies. His description of the 
buffalo is quaintly interesting. 

De Vaca's Description of the Buffalo 

"Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times 
and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size of 
those of Spain. They have small horns, like the cows of Moroc- 
co, and the hair very long and flocky, like that of the Merino; 
some are light brown, others black. To my judgment the flesh 
is finer and fatter than that of this country. The Indians make 
blankets of the hides of those not full grown. They range over 
a district of more than four hundred leagues, and in the whole 
extent of plain over which they run the people that inhabit near 
there descend and live on them, and scatter a vast many skins 
throughout the country." 

Turning southward, De Vaca and his compan- 
ions finally reached Culiacan in Sinaloa, the more 
northern Spanish outpost, in May, 1536. Their 

[43] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

wanderings through the wilderness had taken them 
over two thousand miles. 

De Soto's Expedition and Death 

De Vaca, who was a small man, possessed a 
large imagination and a garrulous tongue. His de- 
scription of the wondrous region traversed, and the 
marvellous stories told him by Indians during cap- 
tivity, aroused the adventurous spirits of two worlds. 
Both Spain and Mexico organized expeditions for 
exploration and conquest. These were so nearly of 
a date, and came so close to overlapping each other 
in the wilderness, that it is difficult to choose which 
should be first described. To most readers that 
commanded by Fernando de Soto will appeal as the 
more important. De Soto sailed from Spain, April 
6, 1538, with an armament of ten vessels, and a 
splendidly equipped army of nine hundred men. 
Landing in Florida, they fought a bloody passage 
across Georgia and Alabama, and westward to the 
Mississippi River. This stream, now first seen 
above its mouth by white men, was crossed at Chick- 
asaw Blufif. From here the little army, now sadly 
decimated and in desperate plight, marched north- 
ward to Little Prairie, always encouraged to per- 
severe by vague tales of gold, ever the object of the 
Spaniard. From this point the commander de- 
spatched numerousexpeditions,oneof which attained 
to the open prairies. Another must have nearly 
reached the Missouri River, although De Soto 
learned nothing as to its whereabouts. At this time, 

[44! 



THE FIRST SPANIARDS 

during the Summer of 1541, some of De Soto's fol- 
lowers may have been very close to that other force 
of Spanish adventures which, under Coronado, 
was then advancing from the west. Indeed, the lat- 
ter learned of the presence of mysterious white men 
in his front, and despatched a messenger seeking 
them, but the man failed in his effort. " Thus," as 
Ripley Hitchcock says, " in the first half of the six- 
teenth century two Spaniards, one starting from 
Tampa Bay in Florida, and the other from the 
Gulf of California, practically completed a journey 
across the continent." 

Disappointed, and constantly harassed by In- 
dians, De Soto turned southward, and passed a 
bitter winter on the Washita. In May, 1542, the in- 
trepid leader died near the mouth of Red River, and 
his body was buried secretly, beneath the night 
shades, under the waters of the vast stream he had 
discovered cleaving the wilderness. 

Wanderings of the Survivors 

Luis de Moscoco became the commander of the 
miserable remnant. Hoping thus to reach their 
countrymen in New Spain, and possibly having 
some vague knowledge of Coronado's presence in 
the neighborhood, the survivors started westward. 
Where they went is not altogether clear, but it is 
believed they penetrated the country of the Plains to 
so great a distance as to perceive the western moun- 
tains. The historian of that journey says : 

"The entire route became a trail of fire and blood. The 

[45] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

savages of the Plains were of gigantic stature, and fought with 
heavy, strong clubs, with the desperation of demons. Such was 
their tremendous strength that one of these warriors was a match 
for a Spanish soldier, though mounted on a horse, armed with 
a sword, and cased in armor." 

De Moscoco and his men passed six months of 
terrible hardship in this region, but, if his object 
was the finding of Coronado's party, he failed. The 
probability is his course was too far to the south, 
for Coronado at this time was in camp near the pres- 
ent location of Wichita, Kansas, or, according to his 
chronicler, "at the junction of the St. Peter and St. 
Paul," now the Big and Little Arkansas. Finally 
discouraged, the little band retraced their steps to 
the Mississippi, where they built boats, and floated 
down to the Gulf. In September, 1543, the miser- 
able remnant reached safety at Tampico. 

Coronado's Search for the Seven Golden Cities 

At almost the identical time that De Soto began 
his struggles westward from Florida, another Span- 
ish officer, Coronado, Governor of New Galicia, 
was leading his soldiers eastward from the coast of 
the Pacific. The story of De Vaca about the fabu- 
lous seven golden cities of Cibola, filled with treas- 
ure, had aroused a spirit of adventure among the 
Spaniards of Mexico. As early as 1539 Fray Mar- 
cos de Nizza left Sinaloa, taking with him as guide 
the negro Stephen who had been De Vaca's com- 
panion. The negro lost his life on the trip, but his 
white comrade returned, and his report served only 

[46] 




•f'w . .^*^-;,:Vi„ 



•"t,^- 



^ j;iJ^!ymB^^^\i:^s,,m^ 



M 




CABECA DE VACA AND HIS COMPANIONS 



THE FIRST SPANIARDS 

to increase the excitement. Determined to discover 
the truth and unearth the mysterious treasure, Men- 
doza, Viceroy of Mexico, organized an expedition, 
and gave the command to Francisco Vasquez Coro- 
nado. It was a well equipped and ably officered 
body of men. This company started north from the 
shores of the Gulf of California in 1540, and, after 
much hardship and some fighting, captured the 
Zuni villages where the negro Stephen had been 
killed, and finally wintered in New Mexico. While 
encamped here, Coronado heard a legend of Qui- 
vira, a wonderful city of gold situated somewhere to 
the northeast. Lured by this mirage, as soon as the 
spring permitted, he pressed forward into the Great 
Plains of Texas, travelling in a wide arc to the 
north. Of this journey one of his soldiers, Pedro 
Castaneda, has written a detailed report. Some of 
his pictures of those strange scenes through which 
they passed are extremely vivid. 

Castaneda's Description of the Buffalo 

"From Cieuye they went to Quivira, which, after their ac- 
count, is almost three hundred leagues distant, through mighty 
plains and sandy heaths so smooth and wearisome and bare of 
wood, that they made heaps of ox-dung, for want of stones and 
trees, that they might not lose themselves on their return; for 
three horses were lost on that plain, and one Spaniard which 
went from his company on hunting. , . . All that way of 
plains are as full of crooked-back oxen as the mountain Serrena 
in Spain is of sheep, but there is no such people as keep those 
cattle. . . . They were a great succour for the hunger and 
the want of bread, which our party stood in need of. . . . 
One day it rained in that plain, a great shower of hail as big 

[47] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

as oranges, which caused many tears, weakness, and bowes. . . . 
These oxen are of the bigness and color of our bulls, but their 
bones are not so great. They have a great bunch upon their 
foreshoulder and more hair on their fore-part than on their 
hinder-part and it is like wool. They have as it were a horse- 
mane upon their backbone and much hair and very long from 
their knees downward. They have great tufts of hair hanging 
down on their foreheads and it seemeth they have beards be- 
cause of the great store of hair hanging down at their chins and 
throats. The males have very long tails and a great knob or 
flock at the end, so that in some respects they resemble the lion, 
and in some other the camel. They push with their horns, they 
run, they overtake and kill a horse when they are in their rage 
and anger. Finally it is a foul and fierce beast, of countenance 
and form of body. The horses fled from them, either because 
of their deformed shape, or else because they had never seen 
them before. . . . The number was incredible. 
The soldiers chasing them, they rushed together in such masses 
that hundreds were crushed to death." 

At one place there was a great ravine, into 
which the animals plunged in terror, and the de- 
pression was completely filled up with their bodies, 
so that the living crossed upon the bridge thus 
formed of the dead. 

The exact route followed by Coronado and his 
men can never be known, for, in spite of Castaneda's 
detailed description, there is such a sameness in the 
Plains country that prominent landmarks are diffi- 
cult to find. Undoubtedly, however, the little band 
of adventurers found their way across the desert of 
the Staked Plains from about where Albuquerque, 
New Mexico, now stands, then the Indian village 
of Tiguex, to the upper waters of the Colorado. 
They were at this time in the country of the wild- 

[48] 



THE FIRST SPANIARDS 

riding Comanches, to whom they gave the name 
Querechos. This advance also brought them into 
the heart of the buffalo region, and they saw huge 
herds covering the Plains as far as the eye would 
carry. From here they turned their course north 
and slightly east, crossing the Brazos, the Red, and 
Canadian Rivers, until they attained the banks of 
the Arkansas, probably near the present site of 
Wichita. The company camped here for several 
months, a considerable contingent returning south; 
but finally Coronado, with the small party left him, 
pressed resolutely forward into northeastern Kansas. 
His highest mark north is generally believed to be 
the line separating that State from Nebraska. Here 
he discovered a tribe of Indians called the Quiviras, 
but they had no gold, and knew of none. Dis- 
couraged, the Spaniards, after a halt of twenty-five 
days, were forced to turn back empty-handed. On 
this return march a more direct route was followed, 
southwest through the Cimarron Desert, until the 
weary wanderers arrived once more at the welcome 
village of Tiguex. Here, under date of October 20, 
1 541, Coronado wrote his report of the expedition. 

Padilla's Mission to the Quiviras 

A journey into the Plains far longer and more 
perilous immediately followed his return. With 
Coronado was a brave priest. Fray Juan de Padilla. 
Impressed by the needs of the savages of the Quivi- 
ras tribe he voluntarily returned to minister unto 
them. He was accompanied by one soldier, Andres 

[49] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Docampo, and two boys, Lucas and Sebastian. An- 
other priest, Fray Juan de la Cruz, was in some 
way also associated with this mission. They reached 
in safety the region sought, and later went even 
farther north, seeking the country of the Grand 
Quivira. After travelling several days they came 
to a large settlement. This was probably in the 
valley of the Platte, and not far from the present 
situation of Columbus, Nebraska. The Indians 
coming out prepared for battle, the priest De 
Padilla bade his attendants withdraw while he went 
forward to meet them alone. From the bluffs they 
witnessed all that happened to the friar. Await- 
ing the coming of the savages upon his knees in 
prayer, the priest was instantly put to death. Fray 
de la Cruz was also killed later, but Docampo and 
the boys succeeded in escaping, wandering over the 
Plains through nine terrible years of suffering, be- 
fore finally reaching the Spanish settlements in 
Mexico. Their journeying as prisoners and fugi- 
tives must have covered thousands of miles all over 
the Plains country, but no records relating to it have 
been preserved. 

Spanish Attempt to Settle on the Upper Mississippi 

Beyond doubt in the lapse of time intervening 
between this adventure of Coronado and the next 
expedition of record across the Plains, individual 
Spaniards — hunters, priests, or soldiers — must have 
penetrated into this region of mystery. But if so, 
no writing remains to tell us what befell them. So 

[50] 



THE FIRST SPANIARDS 

far as history is concerned, the Great Plains re- 
mained hidden in their savagery from 1541 until 
1 71 6, when the Spaniards, then permanently estab- 
lished at Santa Fe, despatched an expedition east- 
ward " for the purpose of establishing a military 
post in the upper Mississippi Valley as a barrier to 
the further encroachments of the French in that di- 
rection." This party was composed of about fifteen 
hundred people, soldiers, with settlers male and fe- 
male, and a Jacobin for a chaplain. They had with 
them a great number of horses and cattle, and ad- 
vanced slowly, their route being nearly that of the 
later famous Santa Fe Trail. So far as can be un- 
derstood, one purpose of the expedition was to de- 
stroy an Indian tribe called the Missouris, and to 
seize upon their country. In this they counted upon 
another tribe, the Osages, as allies. Through some 
mistake the Spanish commander, believing himself 
in council with the latter, unfortunately revealed 
his plans to the very Indians he had come to de- 
stroy. The result was a trap into which the Span- 
iards walked unsuspectingly. Even while both par- 
ties were celebrating this new alliance two thousand 
armed warriors fell upon the whites, and in less 
than fifteen minutes had killed them all. No one 
escaped excepting the chaplain, whose peculiar cos- 
tume attracted the Indians' curiosity. Fortunate 
for him, also, was the fact that to the Missouris 
the horse was then comparatively unknown. Igno- 
rant of how to ride they compelled the priest to 
mount, and instruct them in horsemanship. He 

[51] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

was kept at this for several months, yet none of his 
captors developed sufficient courage to emulate his 
example. Finally the Jacobin determined to escape. 
Waiting until he was mounted on the swiftest 
horse, he suddenly rode away and disappeared, 
making his way back to Mexico safe. This oc- 
curred not far from the present site of Leaven- 
worth. 



[52] 



CHAPTER IV 
THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 

Spanish Missions Established 

IN THE closing years of the seventeenth and the 
opening years of the eighteenth century Spain 
did little toward exercising control over this vast 
region which had been explored by her daring ad- 
venturers. Established in some power at Santa Fe 
since about 1609, her pioneers were so harassed by 
the surrounding Indians that they had small oppor- 
tunity or inclination for any further advance. How- 
ever, the missionaries of the Church circulated 
widely among the tribes of the Plains, and exercised 
considerable influence. Permanent missions were 
established in various localities, and along the east- 
ern slope of the Rockies some of these were sup- 
ported by military garrisons; and Spanish traders 
are known to have penetrated as far north as the 
Arapahoe and Pawnee villages. 

The French Explorers 

Meanwhile the French, now firmly established 
about the Great Lakes and along the Mississippi, 
were reaching out westward in undisciplined ex- 
ploration. Three purposes may be said to have 
controlled their efforts, — a desire to possess this land 
in advance of Spain; the insistent demands of the 
widening fur trade; and an ambition to discover 

[53] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

some practicable route to the Pacific. As early as 
1704, Bienville reported that over one hundred 
Canadians were already scattered along the Missis- 
sippi and Missouri Rivers. In 1705 one of these, 
named Laurain, claimed to have ascended the lat- 
ter stream for a considerable distance; in 1719 Du 
Tisuc was certainly above Grand River, and a little 
later reached the village of the Osage Indians. 
Here he found difficulty in proceeding, but finally 
pushed on across the prairies to the encampment of 
the Pawnees. Their hostility compelled him to re- 
tire. 

The earlier and more persistent advance of the 
French was from the garrisons of Louisiana on to 
the prairies of Texas. In 1714 Saint-Denis was 
sent by La Mothe Cadillac up Red River, and suc- 
ceeded in reaching a point about sixty-eight leagues 
above Natchitoches. The following year he struck 
across the Plains toward the Spanish settlements, 
but was captured near the Rio Grande, and taken 
as a prisoner to Mexico. He was well treated, 
married a Spanish girl, and, after his release, at- 
tempted a second trip into the same country. This 
proved even more disastrous than his first, and the 
adventurer barely escaped with his life. 

The Expedition of De la Harpe 

In March, 1719, Benard de la Harpe led a 
more important exploring expedition from the fron- 
tier post at Natchitoches westward into the prairie 
country. He had with him a sergeant and six 

rs4] 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 

privates. Their advance was up the Red River in 
canoes, but was soon brought to a halt by encounter- 
ing that entanglement of driftwood, since known as 
the Red River raft, which completely choked the 
stream and forced them to take to the jungle. Nev- 
ertheless they pushed resolutely forward, dragging 
their canoes, until they again attained navigable 
water. At the end of a month of incessant labor 
they reached an Indian village about one hundred 
and eight leagues from the French post. After 
halting here for some time to rest and to build a 
trading-post. La Harpe, accompanied by ten men, 
white, red, and black, started forward again on foot 
to explore the country. He advanced to the north- 
west across hills, through forests, and over prairies, 
forded two branches of the Wichita, and, early in 
September, found himself on the banks of the Ar- 
kansas. Here he encountered a large number of 
Indians, probably Comanches, who were in direct 
trade with the Spaniards, and who informed him he 
could reach their country by ascending the river. 
Not being equipped for so long a journey La Harpe 
reluctantly returned to the fort on Red River. Two 
years later he attempted to explore the Arkansas 
by means of canoes, but accomplished little. 

The Spanish expedition to the Missouri in 1721, 
already described, resulted in a corresponding ad- 
vance of the French from the Illinois country. 
Bourgmont was the commander of the party which 
was despatched westward, his main object being 
trade with both Indians and Spaniards, and the 

[55] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

establishment of peace with the Comanches. On the 
Missouri River, not far above the mouth of the 
Grand, he erected a trading-post of logs which was 
named Fort Orleans, and then started forth to 
march overland to the Comanche villages. He had 
with him Ensign Saint-Ange and a number of sol- 
diers and Canadians, about twenty altogether, with 
a hundred and nine Missouri and sixty-eight Osage 
Indians. The party advanced slowly over a region 
which Bourgmont described as " a fine prairie coun- 
try, with hills and dales, and clumps of trees to 
right and left." At the end of the sixth day of 
marching they reached the Kansas River, but here 
the leader was taken so severely ill that the expedi- 
tion had to be abandoned. However, a soldier 
named Gaillard, volunteering for the service, was 
sent forward to the Comanche villages with a 
French message. It was an exceedingly perilous 
mission, but proved successful. The following Sep- 
tember Bourgmont again departed westward on his 
mission of peace. This time he was accompanied 
by his young son, a surgeon, and nine soldiers. 
Reaching the village of the Kansas Indians he 
found there several Comanche warriors whom Gail- 
lard had persuaded to meet him on the way. Here 
a great council was held, in which the Kansas, Mis- 
souris, lowas, and Otoes were all represented. Oc- 
tober eighth all these, together with some Omahas, 
joined in the march of the white men westward. 
Gaillard and a companion named Quesnel were 
despatched in advance on swift horses, while Bourg- 

[56] 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 

mont and his cavalcade of savage followers moved 
more slowly up the north bank of the Kansas River. 
It must have been an imposing spectacle. On the 
eleventh they forded the river about twenty leagues 
from its mouth, and struck out toward the south- 
west; in Parkman's words, — 

"sometimes threading the grassy valleys of little streams, some- 
times crossing the dry upland prairie, covered with the short, 
tufted, dull-green herbage since known as ' buffalo grass.' Wild 
turkeys clamored along every water-course, deer were seen on 
all sides, buffalo were without number, sometimes in grazing 
droves, and sometimes dotting the endless plain as far as the eye 
could reach. Ruffian wolves, white and gray, eyed the travellers 
askance, keeping a safe distance by day, and howling about the 
camp all night." 

Not until the eighteenth did they meet the 
Comanches, when the two couriers dashed suddenly 
into camp at the head of eighty warriors. Then all 
advanced together to the Comanche village, which 
was situated about three leagues distant. This spot 
was probably a little north of the Arkansas in the 
neighborhood of the Great Bend. Several days 
were spent here in feasting and making presents, 
after which, a satisfactory treaty of peace having 
been agreed upon, the whites took up their return 
journey to Fort Orleans. 

No further explorations, or advance into the 
Great Plains were made by the French for fifteen 
years. In the meantime, however, their traders had 
pushed up the Missouri as far as the Mandan vil- 
lages, but halted there under the impression that the 
river beyond swerved to the south into the Spanish 

[57] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

possessions of New Mexico. Two brothers named 
Mallet, with six companions, finally penetrated the 
wide stretch of country lying between. These men 
pressed up the Platte to its South Fork; then, after 
following the latter stream for some distance, turned 
directly south across the plains of Colorado. Here 
they found no wood, but were compelled to build 
their camp-fires from the dried dung of the bufifalo. 
They crossed the upper Arkansas, forded the Cim- 
maron, and, without special adventure, reached the 
Spanish town of Santa Fe in July, 1739. The next 
Spring they started on their return, three of the 
party crossing the Plains to the Pawnee villages, the 
others descending the Arkansas. This adventure led 
to others, but, so far as known, none of them met 
with success. 

Explorations by De la Verendrye, and by His Two Sons 

Meanwhile other efforts were being made far to 
the north to unveil the mystery of this region ; and 
while much of exploration takes place beyond the 
Plains, it is intimately connected with our present 
study, and cannot be ignored, particularly as it ex- 
tended far to the south and west of the Missouri. 
From the year 1700 the French had made strenuous 
efforts to press their explorations westward through 
the country of the Sioux Indians in Minnesota and 
the Dakotas. Owing to the never ceasing hostility 
of these savages they had met with small success. 
In 1728 Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la Veren- 
drye, commanding a small post north of Lake Supe- 

[58] 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 

rior, determined on an endeavor to penetrate west- 
ward farther to the north, through the country of 
the Assiniboines, in search of the Western Sea. He 
found aid for his scheme in the Governor, Beau- 
harnais, who took great interest in it; but the King 
would advance no money. All he would consent to 
do was to authorize De la Verendrye to proceed, at 
his own expense, pledging him as reward for his 
effort a future monopoly of the fur trade in the re- 
gions thus discovered. This, necessitating the 
building of a chain of forts throughout that north- 
ern wilderness, greatly delayed the exploration, and 
it was not until 1738 that the French leader made 
any definite advance. Accompanied by twenty men 
he pushed up the Assiniboine River until the shal- 
lows halted his canoes. Then, with some Indian 
guides, the little party struck out directly across the 
open prairies, until they reached the villages of the 
Mandans on the Missouri, about where Bismarck 
now stands. Hampered by the loss of the bag con- 
taining presents for the savages, and the desertion 
of his interpreter, De la Verendrye accomplished 
little of value. The Mandans knew of the Span- 
iards to the southward, but none of that race had 
ever visited them. At this time the tribe possessed 
six large villages, the smallest containing one hun- 
dred and thirty houses. Between this date and the 
visit by Lewis and Clark in 1804, smallpox had re- 
duced them to two villages and three hundred and 
fifty warriors. Himself very ill, De la Verendrye 
left two of his men with the Mandans, to learn their 

[59] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

language, and returned with the others to Fort La 
Reine, where he arrived February ii, 1739. 

The effort at further exploration was taken up 
by the two sons of De la Verendrye in 1742. Mak- 
ing their way to the Mandans and taking some of 
those Indians for guides, they advanced west and 
south, over the prairies and across the "bad lands." 
In irregular course, owing to the peculiarity of the 
country traversed, the bold explorers journeyed be- 
yond the Black Hills, and westward into Montana 
until they arrived amid the foot-hills of the Big 
Horn Range of the Rockies in Wyoming. It was 
in January, 1743, that white men first gazed upon 
these northern peaks. Both going and returning the 
De la Verendryes met various wandering tribes of 
Indians, mostly of the great Sioux family, yet they 
experienced no serious opposition. It was in July 
when the party returned to Fort La Reine, with 
much of interest to report; but a way to the Pacific 
was yet undiscovered. This effort, the last seriously 
attempted, marks the farthest west achieved by 
French adventure. 



[60] 



CHAPTER V 
THE EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARK 

The Two-Fold Object of the Expedition 

IN THE interim between the return of the De la 
Verendryes and the transfer of all this great 
Western country to the United States, no organized 
effort at exploration is matter of record. Individual 
fur-traders, both French and American, certainly 
continued to penetrate the country as far as the 
Mandan villages, and possibly even to the moun- 
tains, while many of the prairie streams were fol- 
lowed by adventurous trappers in their search after 
beaver. Yet practically the country remained un- 
known, a vast untracked wilderness, scarcely pressed 
by adventurous white feet. 

On the thirtieth of November, 1803, Louisiana 
was formally transferred by the French commis- 
sioners to the United States. The cost approximated 
$15,000,000, and the full extent of territory involved 
was still a matter of doubt. One of the first acts of 
President Jefferson, following this consummation, 
was the organization of a Government expedition 
to determine the nature of the purchase and discover 
a route through the wilderness to the far-off Pa- 
cific. Up to that time little was known excepting 

[61] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the vague tales of Indians and illiterate trappers. 
As a preliminary during the winter following this 
acquisition of territory, brief explorations were 
made along the Red and Washita Rivers, and May 
14, 1804, a carefully organized expedition started 
overland for the Pacific. Two men were associated 
as joint leaders, and, so far as known, worked in 
complete harmony. These were Captains Meri- 
wether Lewis and William Clark. Both were men 
of proved courage, ability, and long frontier train- 
ing. Their instructions allowed them great lati- 
tude, and involved careful study of the Indian tribes 
and the nature of the country traversed. 

Preparations and Outset 

The Winter of 1803-1804 was passed in the 
neighborhood of St. Louis in preparation for the 
advance in the Spring. Particular attention was 
paid to the personnel of the little party, the men 
being carefully chosen for the task to be accom- 
plished. Fourteen soldiers, nine frontiersmen, two 
French voyageurs, and a negro servant made up the 
list. In addition to these a corporal, together with 
six soldiers and nine boatmen, was detailed to ac- 
company the party as far as the Mandan villages, 
then near the present site of Bismarck, North Da- 
kota. Their means of transportation by water con- 
sisted of a keel boat fifty-five feet long, drawing 
three feet of water. Decked over at bow and stern, 
it contained forecastle and cabin, the space between 
being provided with lockers that could be raised to 

[62] 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARK 

form breastworks in case of attack. This boat had 
a sail and twenty-two oars. The two other boats 
were smaller and undecked, the one having seven, 
the other six oars. 

While this expedition of Lewis and Clark mere- 
ly skirted the Great Plains, its direct influence was 
of such importance that the story merits careful 
telling. Leaving their winter camp at the mouth of 
the Du Bois River on May 14, 1804, the boats be- 
gan their slow and toilsome advance against the 
strong, yellow current of the Missouri. Before them 
was a journey of unknown peril, involving some 
eight thousand miles of travel upon strange waters, 
and across untracked mountains and plains. The 
early part of the voyage was uneventful, as it was 
along a watery highway long utilized in the fur 
trade. The only noteworthy incidents were the con- 
stant meetings with canoes bound for St. Louis, 
laden with furs. It was June 26 when, having left 
the State of Missouri, they made camp at the mouth 
of the Kansas River. Here they saw their first buf- 
falo, and looked off across the great prairies. At 
this point the river-course changed to the northwest. 
As they pressed forward, skirting the Kansas shore, 
they made such careful description that even to-day 
nearly every camping-spot can be identified. By 
the middle of July they were between what are now 
Iowa and Nebraska, ever toiling ceaselessly against 
the sweep of the current, and meeting with numer- 
ous adventures. One fierce prairie storm was en- 
countered, in which a boat narrowly escaped wreck, 

[63] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

and there was much sickness among the men, caused 
probably by drinking the muddy river water. 

Councils with the Pawnees and the Sioux 

July 21, they passed the wide shallow mouth of 
the Platte, meeting difficulties of navigation amid 
the sand bars, and being greatly disturbed in their 
night camp by the ceaseless howling of wolves. Ten 
miles above they went ashore, and despatched mes- 
sengers to the villages of the Pawnees. It was not un- 
til August 3, however, that these Indians were met 
with. A council was held on the west side of the 
river several miles above the present site of Omaha, 
the gathered savages expressing a desire for peace. 
Other councils were held as the boats advanced, and 
while encamped near the site of the present Sioux 
City the only member of the expedition to lose his 
life died of colic. This was Sergeant Charles 
Floyd. By late August the explorers entered what 
is now South Dakota. They were then in the land 
of the Sioux, and knowing full well the fierce char- 
acter of these savage rovers of the plain, they made 
every effort to hold council with them. This was 
successfully accomplished on the thirtieth of Au- 
gust, when the pipe of peace was smoked, and the 
Indians gave a weird dance in their honor. 

Above Yankton the travellers found much to in- 
terest them, although they were not yet beyond the 
boundaries of the fur trade; frequently they met 
hardy voyageurs floating down on the muddy cur- 

[64] 




THE PRAIRIE 




AN INDIAN BUFFALO HUNT 



SCENES DURING THE INDIANS' SUPREMACY ON THE PLAINS 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARK 

rent. Here sand ridges were seen so regular in for- 
mation as to be mistaken for the work of man. 
Among other things noted and described were an- 
telope, prairie dogs, and the curious remains of one 
of the extinct giant reptiles of the Cretaceous pe- 
riod, which was described as the " backbone of a 
fish forty-five feet long, in a perfect state of petri- 
faction." In the country of the Teton Sioux, with- 
in the limits of the present Presho County, the 
explorers experienced their first serious difliculty 
with savages. Guns were drawn, but, after some 
hostile demonstration, a reconciliation was reached, 
and a peace council held. This was concluded by 
a scalp dance in which the noise was deafening. 

The Country of the Aricaras and that of the Mandans 

In spite of their professions of friendship these 
same Sioux proved troublesome, constantly dogging 
the travellers along the river banks, and they were 
glad to escape and enter into the country of 
the Aricaras. These Indians proved friendly, and 
were noted as remarkable in that they refused a gift 
of whiskey, saying it would make them fools. Along 
here the travellers for the first time saw the grizzly 
bear, and the bighorn. Fur-traders were met, and 
proved of much assistance. It was now October, 
the weather growing cold, and on the twenty-first 
of that month the wearied travellers reached the 
mouth of Heart River, where the Northern Pacific 
Railroad now crosses the Missouri. Here they 
found the villages of the Mandans, and made prep- 

[65] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

arations to spend the winter. On the north bank, 
about where the town of Stanton is now situated, the 
explorers erected some log huts, protected by a 
stockade. Much of interest occurred during the 
months passed here, the habits of the Mandans be- 
ing intelligently studied. The Sioux were quite 
troublesome, but the deep snow prevented any cam- 
paign against them. Buffalo-hunting was indulged 
in, and, although the mercury sank to thirty-two 
degrees below zero, out-of-door sports were kept 
up. Several visits from fur-traders were received, 
but the most impotant happening was the engage- 
ment of an Indian interpreter named Chaboneau. 
His wife, Sacajawea (Bird Woman), a captive 
from the Snake Indians, proved a most valuable 
ally. 

From Stanton, North Dakota, into the Wilderness 

April 7, 1805, the escort of soldiers started back 
down the river, and on the same day the expedition 
proper began its journey into what was from now 
on a truly unexplored wilderness. The thirty-two 
members embarked in two large boats and six ca- 
noes, and slowly propelled their way upstream. As 
they advanced they beheld wild geese and gophers, 
and soon came into the region of the sage-brush and 
alkali. As they now passed beyond the Plains into 
the mountains, our review of their experiences must 
be brief. On the twenty-fifth Captain Lewis and 
four men, travelling on foot, discovered the Yel- 
lowstone River, which was already known to French 

[66] 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARK 

trappers as La Roche Jaune. They saw great num- 
bers of wild animals, and had several serious en- 
counters with grizzly bears. They were now within 
the limits of the present Montana, passing in turn 
the mouths of Poplar and Milk Rivers, and the bed 
of a stream without water, which they named "Big 
Dry." 

The Watershed between Atlantic and Pacific 

During this advance numerous adventures oc- 
curred, including the upsetting of canoes, and the 
falling of trees. At times they were obliged to tow 
their boats by a line from the shore. May 20 they 
were at the mouth of the Mussel-shell, twenty-two 
hundred and seventy miles from St. Louis, and six 
days later, from the summit of a high hill, Captain 
Lewis caught his first distant view of the Rocky 
Mountains. Coming to a division of the waters, 
much time was lost in determining which was the 
main stream, but they finally determined on the 
branch leading toward the southwest. Some dis- 
tance farther on they were compelled to make a 
toilsome portage of eighteen miles, which caused a 
delay until June 27. This was at Great Falls, where 
a prosperous city now stands. Sacajawea was novv' 
in her own native land, and proved of much value 
as a guide; but the explorers themselves had to 
search for a pass through the mountains. At last, 
about the middle of August, the struggling company 
arrived at the source of the Missouri. They were 
now on foot, following an old Indian trail. This 

[67] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

trail brought them to the dividing line between 
the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Be- 
low ran a creek which emptied into the Columbia. 

On the Columbia 

Pressing on through obstacles seemingly impos- 
sible, skirting the shores of wild mountain streams, 
suflfering from lack of food, deceived by Indians, 
the undismayed explorers finally found a passage 
across the Bitter Root Range, and, September 20, 
came forth upon a great plain, and into the care of 
the Nez Perces, whose village stood near the pres- 
ent site of Pierce City, Idaho. Here they rested 
several days, finally advancing to the Kooskooskee 
River, where, in spite of much sickness, they built 
five canoes, and, October 8, started down the stream. 
Adventure followed adventure with startling fre- 
quency, but, in spite of smashed boats and Indian 
interruption, the men persevered and conquered; 
and, on the sixteenth of October, their battered ca- 
noes swept out upon the waters of the mighty Co- 
lumbia, then known as the Oregon, or "River of the 
West." This great stream was henceforth to be 
their pathway to the sea. 

The remainder of their westward journey, while 
prolific enough of hardships and perils, was but the 
drifting down with the current to the river's mouth. 
On the way they passed numerous Indian villages, 
but experienced little trouble with the savages; they 
ran falls and shot rapids, met with their first Flat- 

[68] 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARK 

heads, looked upon the wonders of Mount Hood, 
and at last discovered evidences that sea traders had 
penetrated even thus far into the interior. So, on 
November 7 they came forth into a view of the 
broad Pacific. That winter was passed in a com- 
fortable camp of seven log cabins about three miles 
up the Netul River. The time was occupied in 
studying the country, observing the natives, and 
hunting. One hundred and thirty-one elk were 
killed, and over twenty deer. 

The Return Journey ^ 

The last of March the long return journey east- 
ward was begun. It proved a laborious trip, as full 
of hardship and adventure as had been their ad- 
vance. Several times they had serious encounters 
with hostile Indians. On April 24, having procured 
a few horses to transport their supplies, the entire 
party moved forward on foot across the mountains 
to the head-waters of the Missouri. Here they again 
constructed canoes and embarked on that stream. 
On August 12, near the mouth of Little Knife 
Creek, they met two fur-traders from Illinois. A 
few days later the entire company were safe in the 
village of the Mandans. September 23 they reached 
St. Louis, and were accorded a rousing welcome. 
As Ripley Hitchock well observes, " The journey 
which they made is one of the world's greatest ex- 
plorations, and its story has become a classic among 
the travel tales of history." While the discoveries 
thus made failed immediately to draw immigration 

[69] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

to the far West, yet its influence was strong, and, in 
later years, when the time was ripe, the observa- 
tions of Lewis and Clark were of the utmost value. 
In the interim the great wilderness remained com- 
paratively unknown, roamed over by Indian and 
fur-trader; the tawny Missouri was the natural 
highway of those few adventurous spirits who dared 
to penetrate that region of savagery. 



[70] 



CHAPTER VI 
THE EXPLORATIONS OF PIKE AND LONG 

The Objects of Pike's Expedition 

AT ABOUT the same time that Lewis and 
Clark, with their heroic companions, were 
struggling across the mountains in search of the Pa- 
cific, the Government was preparing to send ex- 
plorers endeavoring to open up the Southwest. This 
second expedition was commanded by Lieutenant 
Zebulon M. Pike, who a few years later lost his 
life in battle against the English in Canada. At 
the time of his assignment to this duty he had just 
returned from a successful exploration of the Mis- 
sissippi to its head-waters. April 30, 1806, he re- 
turned to St. Louis from this trip, and in July 
departed westward on his long journey across the 
prairies. His party consisted of twenty-three sol- 
diers, and he was required to escort to their homes 
a number of Osage and Pawnee chiefs who had 
been visiting in Washington. The special avowed 
object of his trip was to reach the sources of the 
Arkansas River, and explore the mountains of what 
is now Colorado. 

From St. Louis to Kansas and Nebraska 

Pike travelled by boat up the Missouri and 
Osage Rivers until the village of the Osage 
Indians was reached. At this point the boats 

[71] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

were abandoned, and the party moved forward 
across the prairies of Kansas and Nebraska to the 
home of the Pawnees. Here evidence was discov- 
ered that the Spaniards at Santa Fe had in some 
way learned of the Americans' projected explora- 
tion westward, and had already taken steps to block 
the path. How really serious this opposition was 
to prove was not fully revealed until later, but at 
this time Pike learned that an armed body of Span- 
iards had just visited the Pawnees, held council with 
them, and left behind a present of flags. Just what 
alliance had been entered into it was impossible to 
learn, yet the Pawnee chief made every effort in his 
power, short of actual force, to keep the Americans 
from proceeding, claiming that he had promised 
the Spaniards to intercept them. Pike, however, 
promptly lowered the flag of Spain, hoisted his own 
in its place, and marched resolutely forward. 

Discovery of Pike's Peak 

The advance of the little body of intrepid ex- 
plorers was directly across the open prairie, and 
they occasionally passed the deserted camping-spots 
of the Spanish troops. The notable sights men- 
tioned day by day were bufifalo, wild horses, and 
prairie dogs. Changing their direction more to- 
ward the south, yet finding little to guide them in 
the unvaried landscape, they finally attained the 
northern bank of the Arkansas River, not far from 
the present town of Great Bend. Here the party 
was divided, a number of the men being despatched 

[72] 




LIEUTENANT ZEBULON PIKE 

THE FAMOUS EXPLORER OF THE SOUTHWEST 



EXPLORATIONS OF PIKE AND LONG 

down the river for exploration. Pike, with fifteen 
followers pushed up the stream to the plains of Col- 
orado, and finally made camp near the site of 
Pueblo. A little before this, November 15, while 
near the mouth of the Purgatory River, the leader 
discovered the peak to which has been given his 
name and which has become his monument. Of 
this first view he wrote : 

"I thought I could distinguish a mountain to our right 
which appeared like a small blue cloud ; viewed it with the spy- 
glass and was still more confirmed in my conjecture; . . . 
in half an hour they [the mountains] appeared in full view be- 
fore us. When our small party arrived on the hill they with 
one accord gave three cheers to the Mexican Mountains." 

His " blue cloud " has ever since been known as 
Pike's Peak. 

Pike Mistakes the Arkansas for the Red River 

On November 24 Pike took a few men with him, 
and set forth from camp with the intention of climb- 
ing the Peak. He made the mistake, very common 
in that atmosphere, of believing it only a short dis- 
tance away. In reality the distance to its base was 
a hundred miles. After travelling far, and climb- 
ing lower ridges, the great peak still towered before 
them in the far distance. They pushed on, how- 
ever, for three days, when deepening snow, together 
with thin clothing and a scarcity of food, compelled 
a retreat. A little later the entire company began 
an ascent of the Arkansas, reaching probably the 
present site of Canon City. Here they turned aside, 

[73] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

following the course of Oil Creek to South Park, 
and passed along the South Platte until they again 
found themselves upon the banks of the Arkansas. 
Believing this to be Red River, the source of which 
he had been particularly ordered to discover, Pike 
defied the bitter cold of a mountain winter and ad- 
vanced up the stream until he reached its begin- 
nings near Leadville. Returning, and arriving at 
his former camp at Canon City, he was disappoint- 
ed to discover that instead of the Red River he was 
still upon the Arkansas. 

Caught on Spanish Territory 

Determined that he would yet succeed, he start- 
ed again January 14, 1807, braving a bitter winter 
storm. With much difficulty and suffering the lit- 
tle party toiled forward up Grape Creek and along 
Wet Mountain Valley. All his men were frost- 
bitten, and several crippled for life. Yet they 
pressed resolutely on, clambering across the Sangre 
de Cristo Range, and finally descending into the San 
Luis Valley. This brought them to the Rio Grande, 
well within Mexican territory, but Pike, believing 
the stream to be the Red River, began its descent 
along the west bank. Reaching the entrance of the 
Rio Conejos on January 31, he made camp, and be- 
gan the erection of a stockade. Although doubt- 
less ignorant of the fact, he was now scarcely eighty 
miles from the more northern Mexican settlement, 
and could not hope to remain for long undiscovered 
by Spanish scouting parties. 

[74] 



EXPLORATIONS OF PIKE AND LONG 

Much speculation has been indulged in by his- 
torical writers regarding this movement into Mexi- 
can territory — the question being whether or not it 
was the result of deliberate purpose, or merely ac- 
cident. General Wilkinson was at that time deeply 
implicated in the plot engineered by Aaron Burr to 
found a new empire in the Southwest. Pike had 
been despatched on this exploring expedition by 
Wilkinson; he was carrying out the latter's orders, 
but we do not know just what those orders were. 
McMaster is inclined to think that this invasion by 
American soldiers was a deliberate part of the Wil- 
kinson plot; but Pike himself emphatically denied 
any such motive, and it would seem far more prob- 
able that by losing his way he became an innocent 
participant in a political game regarding which he 
knew nothing. 

Be that as it may, the result was inevitable. He 
had been at this camping-place less than a month 
when a considerable Spanish force appeared. No 
attempt at resistance was made, owing probably to 
the exceedingly polite manner in which the com- 
mandant extended an invitation to the lost Ameri- 
cans to visit the Governor at Santa Fe. However 
pleasantly the truth was thus concealed under the 
guise of fair words, the little party of explorers 
were no less prisoners, as they discovered upon ar- 
rival at the capital. They were deprived of their 
arms, and after severe questioning the Governor de- 
spatched the confiding Captain under guard to the 
commandant-general at Chihuahua, where his pa- 

[75] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

pers were taken from him. Finally, after many 
journeys here and there, the entire party were 
escorted northward across Texas, and safely de- 
livered to their countrymen at Natchitoches, 
Louisiana, on July i, 1807. 

The Object of Long's Journey 

Twelve years later the Government despatched 
another expedition into these Western wilds. The 
object was an exploration of the Yellowstone ; but, 
through various causes, this was abandoned, and 
the party contented itself with an almost aimless 
wandering across the Great Plains. While little 
was discovered, the publicity given to the report 
made had considerable effect upon Western settle- 
ment. The organization was at first both military 
and scientific, the troops being under command of 
Colonel Henry Atkinson, and the other department 
controlled by Major Stephen H. Long. The jour- 
ney up the Missouri was performed on the "West- 
ern Engineer," probably the first stern-wheel 
steamboat ever built, and which had just been 
launched at Pittsburg. This marine wonder was 
seventy-five feet long, thirteen feet beam, and drew 
nineteen inches of water, and, although very slow, 
proved quite successful. Leaving St. Louis June 9, 
1 8 19, the "Western Engineer" succeeded in arriv- 
ing at what is now Council BlufTs the seventeenth 
of September. Here winter camp was made, and 
the troops suffered severely from scurvy. Over 
three hundred were attacked, of whom a third died, 

[76] 



EXPLORATIONS OF PIKE AND LONG 

The scientists in camp a short distance away did 
not suffer; they passed a pleasant winter, visiting 
much at the adjacent fort of the Missouri Fur Com- 
pany, where were two women, probably the first to 
ascend the Missouri so far. One was the wife of 
the Commandant, Manuel Lisa; the name of the 
other is unknown. When Spring came, for reasons 
not even yet clearly understood the military portion 
of the proposed expedition was abandoned; the 
troops were ordered East, but Major Long and his 
scientists were despatched westward into the Plains, 
his orders being to go " to the source of the River 
Platte, and thence by way of the Arkansas and Red 
Rivers to the Mississippi." The party thus sent into 
the very heart of the Indian country was small and 
poorly equipped. Besides Major Long it consisted 
of Captain John R. Bell, Lieutenant W. H. Swift, 
Thomas Say, Edwin James, T. R. Peale, Samuel 
Seymour, H. Dougherty, D. Adams, three engages, 
one corporal, and six privates. So thoroughly was 
this band despised by the savages that on several 
occasions their chiefs coatemptuously refused to 
meet them in council. 

The Canadian River Mistaken for the Red River. 

Leaving camp on the Missouri June 6, the little 
company proceeded, by way of the Pawnee villages 
on the Loup, up the sandy shores of the Platte as 
far as the present site of Grand Island. Here they 
crossed the stream, and without incident continued 
on to the Forks, and ascended the South Fork. The 

l77'\ 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

thirtieth of June they came in sight of the moun- 
tains, the peak first seen since bearing the name of 
Long. Very little effort was made to follow the 
stream to its source, mountain-climbing being ex- 
ceedingly hard work, and the camp established on 
the present site of Denver proving a pleasant place 
of rest. July 9, however, this camp was deserted, 
and the party moved southward, and halted on 
the banks of Fountain Creek. Starting from here. 
Dr. James, with two men, succeeded in ascending 
Pike's Peak to its summit, and ascertained its alti- 
tude. Resuming their march on the sixteenth, they 
arrived at the Arkansas near the mouth of Turkey 
Creek. Here, after a few short exploring ex- 
peditions had been attempted, resulting in no 
discoveries of importance, the company separated, 
one section under Captain Bell descending the Ar- 
kansas, while the other sought the Red River. This 
separation occurred July 24, 1820. 

The travels of both parties proved uneventful, 
that down the Arkansas terminating at Fort Smith, 
September 9. Major Long's party took a course 
slightly east of south, crossing Purgatory Creek 
and several of the sources of the Cimarron, until 
they arrived at what they believed to be a tributary 
of the Red River. This they followed to the main 
stream, which was descended to its mouth, when 
the discovery was made that instead of the Red they 
had been upon the Canadian River. The party 
suffered greatly from excessive heat and lack of 
food, but had no adventures, and learned little of 

[78] 



EXPLORATIONS OF PIKE AND LONG 

the country which could not have been discovered 
by interviewing those traders and trappers who al- 
ready ranged the region. They arrived at Fort 
Smith only four days later than Captain Bell. This 
expedition practically completed all Government 
effort at exploration for several years. 



[79] 



CHAPTER VII 

THE FUR-TRADERS 

Trappers and Traders the True Pathfinders 

WHILE the Government was virtually neg- 
lecting this Western country of the Plains, 
private enterprise had been slowly prying open its 
secrets, and individuals were finding their uncer- 
tain way along its water-courses, or across its sun- 
browned prairie. The fur trade was the powerful 
magnet which thus early drew westward hardy ad- 
venturers by the score. Very few of the names of 
those who thus first trod the Plains have been pre- 
served even upon the records of the great fur com- 
panies. They were generally obscure, illiterate men, 
possessing little except their rifles and traps, living 
for long years in the depths of the wilderness, only 
occasionally appearing amid the haunts of pioneer 
civilization with their packs of furs. Sometimes 
they travelled in independent parties for protection 
against Indian treachery; some were free trappers, 
others were enrolled upon the lists of the organized 
fur companies and worked under orders. In either 
case they necessarily led hard, wild lives, continu- 
ally filled with adventure and personal peril. These 
men, roughly clothed, living on wild game, their 
safety constantly menaced, were the true Western 
pathfinders, digging continually deeper year by year 
into the vast wilderness, and from their ranks came 

[80] 



THE FUR-TRADERS 

those competent guides who were later to lead or- 
ganized expeditions to the Western Ocean. During 
the forty years following the purchase of Louisiana 
by the United States the people of the East pos- 
sessed hardly the slightest conception of its immense 
value. The one considerable commercial attraction 
it offered during this period was its wealth of furs, 
and during nearly half a century this was its sole 
business of importance. 

In the language of Chittenden, introducing his 
history of the American fur trade : 

"The nature of this business determined the character of 
the early white population. It was the roving trader and the 
solitary white trapper who first sought out these inhospitable 
wilds, traced the streams to their sources, scaled the mountain 
passes, and explored a boundless expanse of territory where the 
foot of the white man had never trodden before. The far West 
became a field of romantic adventure, and developed a class of 
men who loved the wandering career of the native inhabitant 
rather than the toilsome lot of the industrious colonist. The 
type of life thus developed, though essentially evanescent, and 
not representing any profound national movement, was a distinct 
and necessary phase in the growth of this new country. Abound- 
ing in Incidents picturesque and heroic, its annals inspire an 
interest akin to that which belongs to the age of knight-errantry. 
For the free hunter of the far West was, in his rough way, 
a good deal of a knight-errant. Caparisoned in the wild 
attire of the Indian, and armed cap-a-pie for instant combat, he 
roamed far and wide over deserts and mountains, gathering the 
scattered wealth of those regions, slaying ferocious beasts and 
savage men, and leading a life in which every footstep was be- 
set with enemies, and every movement pregnant of peril. The 
great proportion of those intrepid spirits who laid down their 
lives in that far country is impressive proof of the jeopardy 
of their existence. All in all, the period of this adventurous 

[8i] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

business may justly be considered the romantic era of the history 
of the West." 

So valuable was this preliminary work in ex- 
ploration that the able historian of the movement 
seems fully justified in his statement, that these often 
unknown men were the true pathfinders, and not 
those official explorers who came later, yet have 
been accorded the proud title. Nothing in West- 
ern geography was ever discovered by Government 
expeditions after 1840. It was every mile of it 
known previously to trader and trapper. Brigham 
Young was led to the valley of Great Salt Lake by 
information furnished by these men; in the war 
with Mexico the military forces were guided by 
those who knew every trail and mountain pass ; they 
were veterans of the fur trade who pointed Fremont 
to the Pacific; and when the rush of emigration 
finally set in toward Oregon and California, the 
very earliest of those travellers found already made 
for them a highway across the continent. 

Some Noteworthy Free Trappers 

At how early a date adventurous free trappers 
had invaded the Great Plains it is impossible to 
state. French-Canadians undoubtedly drifted down 
from the north, through the country of the Sioux, 
well back in the eighteenth century, possibly even 
penetrating as far as the Arkansas, where they 
came in contact with the Spanish outposts. As early 
as 1800 American hunters had advanced up the Mis- 
souri as far as the villages of the Mandans, and had 

[82] 



THE FUR-TRADERS 

trapped upon the waters of the Platte. In 1804 ^^ 
know that two Illinois men, Hancock and Dickson, 
were trapping beaver on the Yellowstone, and there 
must have been scattered here and there others 
whose names have not been preserved. In 1807 
John Colter, a member of Lewis and Clark's party, 
discharged on the Missouri, immediately turned 
back into the wilderness, where he remained for 
years, making important discoveries, including that 
region now known as Yellowstone Park. Potts, an- 
other Lewis and Clark man, accompanied him until 
killed by Indians. The full story of these individ- 
ual wanderers over plain and mountain can never 
be written. Very few of the names, or the adven- 
tures met with, have been perserved, and the most 
of the men perished alone in the wilderness. 

Organized Fur-Traders Opposed by the Indians 

Among organized fur-traders the earliest name 
of any prominence is that of Manuel Lisa, of St. 
Louis. With him were associated Pierre Menard 
and William Morrison, of Kaskaskia. As early 
as 1807 these men began operations on the Plains, 
gradually advancing into the mountains, establish- 
ing trading-posts along the Missouri, and as far 
away as the mouth of the Big Horn. These men 
were compelled to fight the Indians as well as con- 
duct trade with them, and their yearly reports were 
as full of adventure as of business. Of all the 
Plains tribes the Aricaras of South Dakota caused 
the most trouble, although the Sioux were also fre- 

[83] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

quently found hostile. In the mountains the Black- 
feet were almost continually upon the war-path. 

Adventures of Ezekiel Williams 

The adventures of a party under Ezekiel Wil- 
liams occurred also as early as 1807. He was a 
well-known frontiersman, who had been employed 
by the Government to restore to his own people 
a Mandan chief who had accompanied Lewis and 
Clark to Washington after a military expedition 
had failed. Twenty men started with him. Hav- 
ing safely performed this assigned duty, Williams 
and his party started west into the mountains on 
a trapping trip, dividing into two detachments on 
arriving at the mouth of the Yellowstone. The 
Indians becoming troublesome, Williams with 
eight or ten of the men moved south along the 
base of the mountains until they reached the Ar- 
kansas. Here another separation took place, four 
going to Santa Fe, while Williams with five men, 
two of them Frenchmen, struck out into the moun- 
tains. Here, while trapping, three were killed, 
and Williams, with Chaplain and Parteau, sought 
protection among the Arapahoes on the South 
Platte. They passed a miserable winter, but in 
the spring Williams got away, and floated down 
the Arkansas in a canoe for over four hundred 
miles. He was captured by Kansas Indians, and 
robbed of his furs, but finally reached safety in 
Missouri in September. The next May he con- 
ducted a party back to the Arapahoe village in 

[84] 



THE FUR-TRADERS 

search of his companions, only to learn they had 
probably been killed. 

Explorations by Employees of the Fur Companies 

The great fur companies had but little to do 
with the Plains except to traverse them in their 
journeys back and forth between the market at St. 
Louis and the mountains. In the earlier days there 
was some trapping of beaver along the prairie 
streams, but this was usually done independently. 
In this work nearly every water-course between 
the Missouri and the Rockies had been explored 
by daring adventurers, oftentimes traversing the 
wilderness alone. Yet the main supply of furs 
was sought in the mountains, and it was to these 
the great fur companies despatched their men, 
generally by boats up the Missouri, although 
occasionally parties struck directly across the inter- 
vening Plain, usually following the valley of the 
Platte. Of the two methods it would almost seem 
as though that by water was the more difficult. 
Against a swift current heavily laden keel-boats 
were slowly hauled, or " cordelled, " twenty men 
along the shore pulling the clumsy barge by means 
of a line fastened high enough to be out of the 
way of brushwood. Where the water was shal- 
low the voyageurs poled single file, facing the stern, 
and pushing with all their power. In deeper water 
oars were utilized, but in any case it was slow, hard 
work, involving months of unremitting labor. 

The same year in which Lisa first organized 

[85] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the Missouri Fur Company, Mr. Astor commenced 
operations on the Pacific Coast, and at once there 
began open war between these two companies for 
the control of the fur trade. The Northwestern 
Fur Company also became involved in the hos- 
tilities. Regarding the occurrences in the far 
Northwest we have now nothing to do, except that 
they were more or less connected with the move- 
ment of expeditions across the Plains. One of the 
most important of these was that led by William 
P. Hunt for the Pacific Fur Company, which left 
St. Louis in the Spring of 1812. He had over 
sixty men in his company, and much toil and suf- 
fering were encountered. Some of the way it be- 
came a race between his party and representatives 
of the Missouri Fur Company. Hunt's party as- 
cended the Missouri as far as the mouth of the 
Big Cheyenne. Here they left their boats and fol- 
lowed the general course of that stream to the base 
of the Black Hills; then they travelled westward 
to the valley of the North Platte. They were al- 
most a year in reaching the Pacific, their circuitous 
route measuring nearly thirty-five hundred miles. 
A year later a party consisting of Robert Stu- 
art, McLellan, Crooks, and two Frenchmen, trav- 
elled east from Astoria. On the way, probably in 
southern Wyoming, they met a trapper named Mil- 
ler, who had just escaped from the Arapahoes. 
These same Indians succeeded in running off their 
horses, and they were compelled to perform the re- 
mainder of their journey to the Missouri on foot. 

[86] 



THE FUR-TRADERS 

Their sufferings in the mountains had been in- 
tense, but after reaching the Plains they had little 
trouble. They followed the Platte through its en- 
tire course, being the first party on record to do so. 

The Ashley Expedition 

In 1822 William H. Ashley comes into promi- 
nence, being connected with the North American 
Fur Company. In that year he helped Alexander 
Henry to erect a trading-fort on the Yellowstone, 
and a year later he started up the Missouri with 
twenty-eight men, bound for that post. On the 
way they were attacked by Aricaras and driven 
back, having fourteen killed and ten wounded. 
Undaunted by this, Ashley enlisted three hundred 
followers, and in 1824 struck out across the Plains, 
following the Platte to the South Pass, and ex- 
ploring the Sweetwater. He pushed through the 
mountains to Utah Lake, built a fort there, and 
two years later sold out his interest to several of 
his men, Jedediah S. Smith, William L. Sublette, 
and David E. Jackson. These were well-known 
names among early trappers and traders. Smith 
having reached California, by the way of Utah and 
Nevada, as early as 1826. In the service of both 
Ashley and this newly formed company, was James 
P. Beckwourth, long famous throughout the West. 
He claimed to have been in the mountains since 
1 8 17, and to have been the first to explore the 
South Platte. To Smith, Sublette, and Jackson 
belongs the distinction of taking the first wagons 

[87] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

across the Plains and into the mountains. Ten 
wagons, each drawn by five mules, were driven the 
entire distance from St. Louis to Wind River. 
Each wagon carried eighteen hundred pounds, and 
they travelled from fifteen to twenty-five miles a 
day. A year later the same company brought out 
fourteen wagons, and others soon discovered this 
to be the easier method of crossing the Great Plains 
with supplies. The favorite route was northwest to 
Grand Island, and then the valley of the Platte. 
A few years later this became the well-travelled 
route to Oregon. 

The revived Missouri Fur Company was at 
about this date, under the leadership of Lisa, Pil- 
cher, Hempstead, and Perkins, operating in the 
country around the South Pass, although the prin- 
cipal territory covered by its trappers was among 
the Sioux, Aricaras, and other Missouri River 
tribes. By 1830 the various organized companies 
must have had a regiment of men on the Plains and 
in the mountains. Of these as individuals very little 
is known. As Herbert Bancroft writes : '' It would 
be gratifying to be able to give a list of all the hunt- 
ers and trappers previous to the period of emigra- 
tion; but these men had no individual importance 
in the eyes of their leaders, who recruited their 
rapidly thinning ranks yearly, with little attention 
to the personality of the victims of hardship, acci- 
dent, vice, or Indian hostility." 

Those hunters were regarded by the fur com- 
panies as mere tools by which they could acquire 

[88] 



THE FUR-TRADERS 

the peltry to be found in unsettled districts; and 
when by disease or death they became no longer 
serviceable, they were cast aside. In many cases 
their bodies were left unburied on the prairie. The 
names of a few of the more prominent have been 
preserved. Among them are Blackwell, La Jeunesse, 
Robert Campbell, Kit Carson, Newell, Meek, Eb- 
berts, Gervais, Craig, Vanderberg, Gale, Ward, 
Wade, Parmalee, Robinson, Larison, Guthrie, Clay- 
more, Legarde, Maloney, Harris, Matthieu, Bou- 
deau, Bissonette, Adams, Sabille, Galpin." 

Captain Bonneville's Expedition up the Platte 

It was in 1832 that Captain E. L. Bonneville, an 
army officer on leave, led a party of one hundred 
and ten frontiersmen across the Plains to the Rock- 
ies. His purpose was profit and adventure, and his 
officers Walker and Serre. They followed the route 
up the Platte Valley with a caravan of twenty 
wagons, the journey being particularly notable 
because oxen were used, these being the first " bull- 
teams" on the northern Plains. The company 
remained in the mountain country for over three 
years. Nathaniel J. Wyeth led a party of adven- 
turers over about the same route in 1832. 

The requirements of the fur trade, carried on 
as it was in the midst of hostile savages, and at a 
great distance from civilization, led to the early es- 
tablishment at convenient points for transportation, 
of posts or forts. These were usually controlled by 
the great fur companies, yet were occasionally 

[89] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

erected by individuals. In appearance they dif- 
fered little, except in size, and the material used in 
construction. Where possible forest trees were uti- 
lized for buildings and stockade, although on the 
open prairie earth was occasionally made to serve 
these purposes, and in the far south adobe prevailed. 
In the later days of the trade the majority of these 
forts were in the mountains ; yet near enough to the 
western edge of the Plains to deal with the Plains 
Indians, but earlier one can trace the slow advance 
of the trapper into the wilderness by the posts thus 
built along his way. Between 1807 and 1843 over 
one hundred and forty of these posts were erected 
throughout the Western country. 

French Forts in the Valley of the Missouri 

Fort Orleans, built by the French under M. 
Bourgemont, was the first of the Missouri River 
posts, dating back to 1772, and stood upon an is- 
land five miles below the mouth of the Grand 
River. There is a tradition that it was once at- 
tacked by savages, and all the inmates massacred. 
At least three posts were a little later established 
in the Osage Valley, but acquired no special im- 
portance. Fort Osage, or Fort Clark, stood near 
the site of Sibley, Missouri, below the mouth of 
the Kansas. It later became a Government fort, 
and was garrisoned until 1827. Francis G. Chou- 
teau, a famous trader, built two posts in the coun- 
try of the Kansas Indians. The first was destroyed 
by flood in 1826, but the second, about ten miles 

[90] 



THE FUR-TRADERS 

up the Kansas River, was maintained for many 
years. An old French fort, the history of which 
is unknown, stood on the Kansas shore opposite 
the upper end of Kickapoo Island, well back 
among the blufifs. It was in ruins as early as 1819. 
A post, erected by Joseph Robidoux, and known 
as Blacksnake Hills, stood on the present site of 
St. Joseph, Missouri. At Council Bluffs a number 
of posts were built, but their names have been for- 
gotten. This was a famous trading-point; but the 
Council Bluffs of those earlier years was twenty- 
five miles above the modern city of that name, and 
on the opposite side of the river, being about where 
the little town of Calhoun now stands. In the 
fifty years following the Lewis and Clark Expedi- 
tion not less than twenty trading-forts were erected 
between this point and the mouth of the Platte. 
Probably the oldest of these was Bellevue, which 
is believed to have been established in 1805. The 
most important, however, was Fort Lisa, founded 
in 18 1 2, and situated six miles below old Council 
Bluffs. 

Similar posts were found opposite the modern 
town of Onawa, Iowa; near the mouth of the Big 
Sioux, and just below the mouth of the Vermilion. 
Halfway between the Vermilion and the James 
stood another, while Ponca Post was beside the 
mouth of the Niobrara. Trudeau's House, some- 
times called Pawnee House, was occupied for trade 
as early as 1796. It was on the left bank, above 
and nearly opposite old Fort Randall. In the 

[91] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

neighborhood of Chamberlain, South Dakota, 
were a number of forts, operated by different fur 
companies as early as 1810. Among them were 
Recovery, Brasseaux, Lookout, Kiowa, and Defi- 
ance. Of these Kiowa, established in 1822, was 
the largest and commercially the most important. 
It was built of logs, and inclosed with a stockade 
of Cottonwood twenty feet high. Lozzell's Post, 
about thirty-five miles below Fort Pierre, was 
probably the first American trading-fort built in 
the Sioux country, and was occupied as early as 
1803. It was of logs, and was seventy feet square, 
with bastions. 

The Early Trading-Posts 

The mouth of what is now called Bad River, 
formerly the Little Missouri, was prolific of trad- 
ing-posts. This was the nearest point on the Mis- 
souri River to the Black Hills and the upper Platte 
Valley. When the first fort was established is un- 
known, but the more famous in the early days were 
Forts Tecumseh and Pierre. The latter was quite 
extensive, containing about two and a half acres of 
land. Scattered throughout the Sioux country nu- 
merous small posts were built. There were three in 
the valley of the James, besides one at the forks and 
one at the mouth of the Cheyenne, one at the Ari- 
cara villages, and others on Cherry, White, and Ni- 
obrara Rivers. These, however, were not important 
or permanent structures. Near the Mandans were 
several forts, the earliest of which was built by 
Lewis and Clark in 1804, while but little later 

[92] 



THE FUR-TRADERS 

Manuel Lisa occupied the ground. His post later 
became known as Fort Vanderburgh. Beyond this 
point we need not go up the Missouri except to 
mention the largest and most important of all the 
trading-forts, Fort Union^ at the mouth of the Yel- 
lowstone. Probably this was first built in October, 
1828. In size it was two hundred and forty by two 
hundred and twenty feet, surrounded by a palisade 
a foot thick and twenty feet high. The bastions 
were of stone, surmounted by pyramidal roofs, the 
walls pierced for defence. A very large number of 
men were employed here, and Indians journeyed 
from great distances to trade. 

Forts along the Eastern Base of the Rockies. 

Leaving this northern mountain country and 
passing southward, we will note briefly those trad- 
ing posts established along the eastern base of the 
Rockies, whose dealings were principally with the 
Indians of the Plains. The Portuguese Houses, 
near the junction of the North and South Forks of 
the Powder River, were occupied at a very early 
date, and were in ruins in 1859. They were erected 
by a trader named Antonio Mateo. Bridger averred 
that at one time this post successfully resisted a 
siege of forty days by the Sioux. Fort William, 
named for William L. Sublette, stood at the junc- 
tion of the North Platte and Laramie Rivers. It 
was built in 1834, and, after an interesting history 

^"Audubon and His Journals," Vol. II, p. 180, gives a de- 
tailed description of this remarkable wilderness fortification. 

[93] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

as a trading-post, was sold to the Government, and 
rechristened Fort Laramie. Fort Platte was an un- 
important post, erected about 1840, on the right 
bank of that stream. La Bonti was a temporary 
trading-house, occupied in 1841, at the mouth of 
La Bonti Creek. In the valley of the South Platte, 
about thirty miles below the present site of Denver, 
were a number of trading establishments whose 
names and histories have not been preserved. Fort 
Lupton, also known as Lancaster, stood on the right 
bank of the South Platte, two miles above the mouth 
of the Saint Vrain. It was built of adobe. Fort 
Saint Vrain was at the mouth of that tributary, and 
was prominent about 1841, when in charge of Mar- 
cellus Saint Vrain. Two other posts were in this 
neighborhood, but their names are not of record. 

Trading-Posts in the Valley of the Arkansas 

The valley of the Arkansas was long occupied 
by the fur-traders; but as these were largely inde- 
pendent operators, their posts were mostly of a tem- 
porary character. The earliest of them dates back 
to 1763, and was situated close up to the foot of the 
mountains, but the name of the daring adventurer 
is unknown. In 1806 Lieutenant Pike built a re- 
doubt just above the mouth of Fountain Creek, and 
it is believed that Chouteau and De Munn occupied 
a house in the same neighborhood in 1815-1817. In 
1 82 1 Jacob Fowler erected a log structure on the 
present site of Pueblo, but his stay there was brief. 
Gant and Blackwell, who were successful traders 

[94] 



THE FUR-TRADERS 

with the Arapahoes, had a post six miles above 
Fountain Creek in 1832, and ten years later, at the 
mouth of that same stream, either James Beck- 
wourth or George Simpson built a fort which be- 
came known as the Pueblo. In 1843 there were two 
posts, names unknown, about five miles above 
Bent's Fort, inhabited by French and Mexicans. 
Their principal business seems to have been smug- 
gling across the Mexican-American line. The 
lower Arkansas had no post of importance, and was 
not greatly frequented by trappers. That known 
as Glenn's is alone worthy of mention, and stood 
about a mile above the mouth of the Verdigris, not 
far from the later site of Fort Gibson. It was prob- 
ably abandoned as early as 1821. 

The one important trading-post of the southern 
Plains was Bent's Fort, or Fort Williams. This 
stood on the north bank of the Arkansas about half- 
way between the present towns of La Junta and 
Las Animas, Colorado. It was erected by three 
Bent brothers, all famous as Western frontiersmen, 
in 1829. It became noted in both the fur and Santa 
Fe trades, a great rendezvous for trappers, and a 
stopping-place for all the wanderers of the Plains. 
At times hundreds of men, women, and children 
were gathered in and about its walls, and many were 
the stirring incidents of its romantic history. It 
was one hundred and fifty by one hundred feet in 
size, the longer sides running north and south. The 
walls were of adobe, six feet thick at the base, and 
seventeen high. The single entrance was upon the 

[95] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

east. In 1839 this fort had in its employ nearly a 
hundred men. Its trade was with the Arapahoes, 
Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches. Rather than 
sell to the Government at a price less than he be- 
lieved it worth, Colonel William Bent deliberately 
destroyed the buildings in 1852. To-day the ruins 
are yet visible. 



[96] 



CHAPTER VIII 
INCIDENTS DURING THE FUR TRADE 

Sufferings of the Trappers 

THE history of the fur trade is filled with 
stories of adventure, daring, and savage war- 
fare. What the hardy trappers suffered, isolated 
in the wilderness, battling constantly against wild 
beasts and wild men, can never be known. The 
majority died in the silence of remote regions, their 
very names long since forgotten, the heroism of 
their last fight untold. The records of the great 
fur companies alone contain brief mention of such 
incidents as appeared to them worthy of being writ- 
ten down. These generally occurred among the 
fastnesses of the great mountains, where the trap- 
pers made rendezvous and spent the larger part of 
their lives. The disastrous battle at Pierre's Hole, 
the heroic exploration of Utah, and the first ad- 
vance to California, are all full of dramatic inci- 
dent; but the occurrences took place too far to the 
westward for the scope of this present work. After 
the first years of exploration, and some beaver trap- 
ping along the streams, the Great Plains were used 
merely as a crossing from the region of civilization 
to the far more profitable mountain region beyond. 
Up the Missouri by boat, or along the valley of the 
Platte on foot, the hunters passed, alone or in 

[97] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

companies, their destination those great ranges be- 
yond. No doubt much of hardship, of adventure, 
of Indian-fighting, marked those long prairie miles, 
but not of sufficient interest to be recorded in the 
prosaic journals of the fur companies. 

The Escape of Hugh Glass 

The miraculous escape of Hugh Glass well pic- 
tures the endurance and suffering of these men. 
Glass was connected with Andrew Henry's party in 
the expedition to the Yellowstone. While he was 
out hunting somewhere along the Grand River, a 
grizzly bear dashed out of a thicket, threw him to 
the earth, tore out a mouthful of his flesh, and turn- 
ing, gave it to her cubs. Glass sought to escape, 
but instantly she was again upon him. Seizing him 
by the shoulder she inflicted dangerous wounds on 
hands and arms. At this moment some of his com- 
panions arrived and killed the bear. Although 
still alive. Glass was so terribly mangled that it was 
not believed he could possibly survive. They were 
in hostile Indian country, and it was necessary the 
party should proceed without delay. Finally, 
Major Henry, by offering a reward, induced two of 
the men to remain with Glass, while the others 
pressed forward. One of the two was named Fitz- 
gerald, and the other, a mere boy, may have been 
James Bridger, later a famous borderer. They 
remained with the wounded hunter five days. Then, 
despairing of his recovery, yet seeing no prospect 
of immediate death, they left him to his fate, taking 

[98] 



INCIDENTS DURING THE FUR TRADE 

with them his rifle and all accoutrements. Reach- 
ing the main party they reported him dead. 

But Glass was not dead. Reviving, he crawled 
to a spring. Close beside it he found wild cherries 
and buffalo berries on which he lived, slowly re- 
covering his strength, until at last he ventured to 
strike out on his long and lonely journey. His ob- 
jective point was Fort Kiowa, on the Missouri 
River, a hundred miles away. He started with 
hardly strength enough to drag one limb after the 
other, with no provisions or means of securing any, 
and in a hostile country where he would be the help- 
less victim of any straying savage. But love of life, 
and a growing desire for revenge on those who had 
deserted him, urged him to the effort. Fortune 
seemed with him. He came to where wolves were 
harrying a buffalo calf. He let them kill it, and 
then, frightening them away, appropriated the 
meat, eating as best he could without either knife 
or fire. Bearing all he could with him, he pushed 
resolutely forward, and, after great distress and 
hardship, attained Fort Kiowa. 

Before his wounds healed. Glass was again in 
the field, starting east with a party of trappers 
bound down the Missouri. When nearing the 
Mandan villages he decided to walk across where 
the river made a bend. Here luck was with him, as 
the boats were attacked by Aricara Indians, and all 
those on board killed. Glass, too feeble to fight, 
had a narrow escape, and was taken by friendly 
Mandans to Tilton's Fort. His one purpose at this 

[99] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

time was vengeance on those two who had deserted 
him in the mountains. Thus inspired, he left Til- 
ton's the same night, plunged into the wilderness, 
travelled alone for thirty-eight days through hostile 
Indian country, and at last reached Henry's Fort, 
at the mouth of the Big Horn. Here he discovered 
that the men he sought had gone east. Still seeking 
them, he at once accepted an opportunity to carry 
a despatch to Fort Atkinson. 

Adventures of Four Trappers 

Four men started with him, and they left the 
Big Horn, February 28, 1824. They went on foot, 
first into the valley of the Powder, and then across 
the divide into the valley of the Platte. Here they 
made skin boats, and floated down the stream until 
they got beyond the foot-hills onto the open prairie. 
Suddenly they ran into a band of Aricaras, with 
whom they attempted to hold council. The sav- 
ages made a treacherous attack, and killed two of 
the men; but, almost by a miracle, Glass managed 
to get away, although he lost all his equipment ex- 
cepting a knife and a flint. He struck out again 
alone for the nearest post, Fort Kiowa. It was at a 
season when bufifalo calves were young, so he had 
plenty of meat, and his flint gave him fire. In fif- 
teen days' travel he made the fort, and, at the very 
first opportunity went down the river again. This 
time he reached Fort Atkinson in safety, arriving 
there in June, 1824. Apparently his desire for re- 
venge had ceased, as he made no further efifort to 

[100] 



INCIDENTS DURING THE FUR TRADE 

discover those who had deserted him. Glass was 
finally killed by Indians on the Yellowstone in 

1832. 

Another pathetic incident of the wilderness is 
illustrative of the life led by these men. Six hun- 
dred and sixteen miles from Independence, Mis- 
souri, on what was later the Old Oregon Trail, was 
a landmark known as Scott's BlufTs. The name 
arose from one of the most melancholy happenings 
in the history of the fur trade. A party of trappers 
were descending the Platte in canoes, when their 
boats were upset in some rapids, and all their sup- 
plies and powder lost. Their plight was desperate, 
and rendered more so by the serious illness of one 
of their number, named Scott. While scarcely 
knowing what to do they came upon a fresh trail of 
a party of white men, leading down the river. 
Anxious to overtake this party, and Scott not being 
able to move, they deliberately deserted him to his 
fate, reporting later that he had died. A year after, 
the man's skeleton was discovered beside these 
blufifs, proving that the wretched sufferer had actu- 
ally crawled more than forty miles before he finally 
surrendered to the inevitable, and sank down in 
merciful death. 

The death of Jedediah S. Smith, whose remark- 
able adventures while exploring a route to Cali- 
fornia have already been mentioned, was one of the 
tragedies of the Plains. Smith was in many respects 
a remarkable man, deeply religious, of undaunted 
courage, and untiring energy. He enlisted in the fur 

[loi] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

trade when a mere boy, and, at seventeen, won dis- 
tinction among these hardy men in battle with the 
Aricaras. After Ashley's retreat Smith carried 
despatches to Henry's Fort on the Yellowstone, a 
mission of great peril. The remainder of his life 
was passed in the wilderness, where he became a 
recognized leader. In 1831 Smith, in connection 
with his old fur partners, Jackson and Sublette, de- 
cided to engage in the Santa Fe trade. In Missouri 
they secured an outfit with twenty wagons and 
eighty men, and started out through Kansas. Be- 
ing veterans of the Plains they felt no doubt of get- 
ting through safely, and everything went well as 
far as the ford of the Arkansas. Here they entered 
upon the desert waste lying between that river and 
the Cimarron. No one in the party had been over 
the route before, and they found no trail, no guid- 
ing landmark. Mirages deceived them and led 
them astray, and the caravan wandered for two 
days without water, their condition becoming des- 
perate. Smith determined to ride ahead and find a 
way for the others. Following a buffalo trail he 
came upon the Cimarron, but found the bed of the 
stream dry. Knowing the nature of such rivers, he 
scooped out a hole in the bottom, which slowly 
filled with water. Stooping down to drink, never 
dreaming of danger, he was mortally wounded by 
arrows shot by skulking Comanches. He staggered 
to his feet, and killed two of his assailants before 
death ended the fight. His companions, after much 

[102] 




INCIDENTS IN THE EXPERIENCE OF EMIGRANTS 

A MIRAGE — A WAGON TRAIN — A FORD OVER A RIVER 



INCIDENTS DURING THE FUR TRADE 

suffering, reached Santa Fe, but their leader had 
paid the toll of the wilderness. 

The Trapper's Characteristics 

It is difficult in these later days to comprehend 
the nature and life of those sturdy wanderers of 
mountain and plain, the early trappers. They were 
soon marked by their environment, and developed 
a peculiar character. The nature of their service 
had its effect upon physiognomy, language, habits, 
and dress. The hard life of the trapper impressed 
itself on all his features. In Chittenden's words: 

"He was ordinarily gaunt and spare, browned with ex- 
posure, his hair long and unkempt, which, with his dress, often 
made it difficult to distinguish him from the Indian. The con- 
stant peril of his life, and the necessity of unremitting vigilance, 
gave him a kind of piercing look, his head slightly bent forward 
and his deep eyes peering from under a slouch hat, or whatever 
head-gear he might possess, as if studying the face of the stranger 
to learn whether friend or foe. On the whole he impressed one 
as taciturn and gloomy, and his life did to some extent suppress 
gayety and tenderness. He became accustomed to scenes of vio- 
lence and death; and the problem of self-preservation was of 
such paramount importance that he had but little time to waste 
upon ineffectual reflections." 

Among these men habits of thrift were practi- 
cally unknown. They were utterly improvident, 
and apparently so by deliberate choice. They 
scorned all effort at economy, and were always 
poor, spending every cent as soon as it was received. 

The earliest of the trappers to push out beyond 
the Missouri were probably French, of the class 

[103] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

known as " free," that is, unconnected with any ot 
the big companies, working one or two together 
independently, and selling wherever they could get 
the best prices for their furs. But the French trap- 
per preferred the open Plains, and only occasionally 
could be induced to follow his trade among the 
gloomy mountain defiles. With few exceptions the 
mountain trapper was of American blood and train- 
ing. Before the War of 1812 trapping in the fast- 
nesses of the Rockies was a venture in which only 
hostile Indians and the rough nature of the country 
were to be considered. After that time it became 
largely a struggle for supremacy between the or- 
ganized fur companies of New York, St. Louis, 
and Mackinaw. Lisa, Henry, Ashley, the Sub- 
lettes, Campbell, Fitzpatrick, Bridger, each in 
turn, crept up the Missouri, or struggled across the 
Plains; each had from one hundred to three hun- 
dred men behind him, and each one was eager to 
outwit the others, jealous and suspicious of every 
stranger. The silent mountain wilderness hid many 
a deed of violence and treachery. But this was in- 
variably the work of the company men. From the 
beginning to the end of the fur trade the " free 
trappers" formed a class by themselves. Their 
story is in every way honorable. Agnes C. Laut epi- 
tomizes it well in her " Story of the Trapper": 

"The crime of corrupting natives can never be laid to the 
free trapper. He carried neither poison nor what was worse 
than poison to the Indian — whiskey — among the native tribes. 
The free trapper lived on good terms with the Indian, because 

[104] 



INCIDENTS DURING THE FUT TRADE 

his safety depended on the Indian. Regenades like Bird, the 
deserter from the Hudson Bay Company, or Rose, who aban- 
doned the Astorians, or Beckwourth of apocryphal fame, might 
cast off civilization and become Indian chiefs, but, after all, 
these men were not guilty of half so hideous crimes as the great 
fur companies of boasted respectabilitj^ Wyeth of Boston, and 
Captain Bonneville of the army, whose underlings caused such 
murderous slaughter among the Root Diggers, were not free 
trappers in the true sense of the term. Wyeth was an enthusi- 
ast who caught the fever of the wilds; and Captain Bonneville 
a gay adventurer, whose men shot down more Indians in one 
trip than all the free trappers of America shot in a century. As 
for the desperado Harvey, his crimes were committed under the 
walls of the American Fur Company's fort. McLellan and 
Crooks and John Day — before they joined the Astorians — and 
Boone and Carson and Colter, are names that stand for the 
true type of free trapper." 

Fights between Whites and Indians. 

During these years of exploration and trading, 
while the land yet remained a wilderness wandered 
over only by little parties of free or employed trap- 
pers, the Great Plains and the waters bordering 
them were the scene of certain events of sufficient 
historic importance to warrant brief mention. The 
first recorded fight between Americans and Indians 
in this region took place in September, 1807, at the 
Aricara villages on the Missouri. Here Ensign 
Pryor of the Army, with fifty men, endeavoring to 
escort a Mandan chief back to his tribe, was at- 
tacked by Aricaras on shore, and compelled to re- 
treat after fifteen minutes of hot fighting. The loss 
of the whites was three killed and ten wounded, one 
mortally. This point on the river was later the 

[lo;] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

scene of various conflicts, the most serious being the 
attack on Ashley's men in June, 1823. This battle 
was fought partly on land and partly on water, and 
was practically a defeat for the whites, who lost 
fourteen killed and about as many wounded. It 
resulted in an army expedition under Colonel Leav- 
enworth being despatched up the river. A three 
days' battle was waged in which neither side could 
claim victory. A treaty of peace was patched up, 
but the Aricaras continued troublesome all through 
the years of the fur trade. 

Earliest Steamboats on the Upper Missouri 

In 1826, Ashley, going West with a party by 
way of the Platte, took with him a six-pounder 
wheeled cannon all the way to Utah Lake. This is 
believed to be the first wheeled vehicle to cross the 
Plains north of the Santa Fe Trail. In 1831 the 
first steamboat to navigate the upper Missouri left 
St. Louis. This was the " Yellowstone," Captain 
Young. It proceeded as far as Fort Tecumseh. 
The following year this boat succeeded in reaching 
Fort Union at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and 
by 1859 steamers had pushed up as far as Fort Ben- 
ton, near where the Teton joins the Missouri. 

Introduction of Smallpox 

In 1837 the Indian tribes of the northern Plains 
were visited by the plague of smallpox. It raged 
with fearful effect among the Aricaras, Mandans, 
and Assiniboines, spreading westward to the Crows 

[106] 



INCIDENTS DURING THE FUR TARDE 

and Blackfeet. The scourge is said to have been in- 
troduced by the passage of the annual steamboat 
of the American Fur Company, the "St. Peters," 
which had several cases on board. The Mandans 
suffered most severely, only about thirty remaining 
alive, and they mostly boys and old men. Chitten- 
den estimates the total loss in the several tribes at- 
tacked at more than fifteen thousand, which, con- 
sidering the probable original population, makes a 
mortality almost without parellel in the history of 
plagues. A writer of the time said: "The de- 
stroying angel has visited the unfortunate sons of 
the wilderness with terrors never before known, and 
has converted the extensive hunting grounds, as 
well as the peaceful settlements of these tribes, into 
desolate and boundless cemeteries." 



[107] 



CHAPTER IX 
BEGINNINGS OF THE SANTA FE TRADE 

Early Adventurers in the Santa Fe Trade 

SOME time between 1609 ^^^ ^^^7 ^^e Span- 
iards of Mexico came northward and estab- 
lished the town of Santa Fe. For two hundred 
years it was the centre of Indian strife, being aban- 
doned and reoccupied, yet ever advancing slowly 
in importance. Spanish traders spread out over the 
wide Plains to the north and east, making their in- 
fluence felt as far as the Platte, and penetrating 
deeply into the canyons of the Rockies. By the time 
Americans began to show an interest in Santa Fe 
the settlement had grown to a population of about 
three thousand, and had become the centre of Span- 
ish political, military, and commercial power on 
the Mexican frontier. 

The Mallet brothers, travelling overland from 
the Aricara villages, were probably the first ad- 
venturers to invade Santa Fe from the East. They 
arrived there in July, 1739, and returned the next 
spring by various routes; but their venturesome 
journey was without direct results. The earliest 
expedition organized for purposes of trade into 
Spanish territory was under French auspices, prob- 
ably some time previous to 1763. The traders trans- 
ported a variety of merchandise up the Arkansas to 
about the neighborhood of Pueblo, where they 

[108] 



BEGINNINGS OF THE SANTA FE TRADE 

opened a temporary store, trading with both In- 
dians and Spaniards. The Spanish authorities, 
however, soon drove them out. It is believed that 
other similar expeditions crossed the Texas Plains, 
but there is no historical record of them. 

The Morrison Expedition 

The next commercial expedition originated in 
St. Louis almost immediately after the transfer of 
Louisiana to the United States. It was organized 
by William Morrison, of Kaskaskia, Illinois, his 
agent being a French Creole named Baptiste La 
Lande. The Frenchman made a success of the 
venture, but the profit was not for Morrison, who 
waited long but in vain for his return. La Lande, 
carrying his goods on pack animals, took a long 
way around, ascending the Platte River to the 
mountains, and then skirting their eastern base to 
the Spanish settlements. He reached Santa Fe in 
the Summer of 1804, sold his goods, married a 
senorita, and remained. Lieutenant Pike met him 
there three years later, apparently contented, thor- 
oughly at home among the Spaniards, his conscience 
untroubled. 

Less than a year after La Lande's entry into 
Santa Fe another adventurer drifted down there 
from across the Plains. This was James Purcell, a 
wandering hunter, originally from Kentucky. Pur- 
cell had been west of the Missouri for three years, 
engaged in a variety of occupations, and in the 
Spring of 1805 found himself near the source of the 

[109] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

South Platte with some Indian traders. He was 
sent by them to the Spanish settlements to seek per- 
mission for the party to come there and trade. On 
his way south, when on the upper waters of the 
Arkansas, he discovered gold, but was later com- 
pelled to throw away the small amount gathered. 
Purcell reached Santa Fe in June, and apparently 
liked the place, as he remained there, making 
money rapidly by working as a carpenter. A year 
later Pike conducted his exploring expedition into 
the New Mexican country, the details of which 
have been given in a previous chapter. 

Troubles with the Spanish Authorities 

The animosity engendered by Pike stopped the 
development of the Santa Fe trade for several 
years. It was too risky to appeal even to the bold 
adventurers of the border. In November, 1809, 
three men, Smith, McClanahan, and Patterson, left 
St. Louis for the Spanish settlements. They had a 
Mexican guide, but were never again heard of. Not 
until 181 2 did an organized American trading ex- 
pedition succeed in reaching Santa Fe, and its re- 
ception was most discouraging. It was composed 
of twelve members, the leaders being McKnight, 
Baird, and Chambers. Their journey over the 
prairies was comparatively uneventful until the 
party forded the Arkansas and entered the sacred 
territory of New Spain. Here they were immedi- 
ately seized by the authorities, and their goods con- 
fiscated. It was nine years before the unfortunate 

[no] 



BEGINNINGS OF THE SANTA FE TRADE 

adventurers were released from the rigors of a 
Mexican prison. 

The next American to reach Santa Fe appears 
to have been Julius de Munn of St. Louis, a part- 
ner of A. P. Chouteau in the Indian trade on the 
upper Arkansas. These two left St. Louis in Sep- 
tember, 1815, and on the way they made a trade 
with a hunter named Phillebert for his entire out- 
fit of furs cached in the mountains, and the time of 
his men. When they arrived at the appointed 
rendezvous the engages were absent, and Indians 
reported that they had gone south into Spanish 
territory. De Munn started after them, and found 
them very comfortably situated at Taos; but he 
pressed on to the capital, with the intention of ask- 
ing the Governor for permission to hunt on the 
headwaters of the Rio Grande. He found the Gov- 
ernor courteous, but unwilling to grant such a 
privilege without consulting those higher in author- 
ity. Unable to wait for a final decision, De Munn 
collected his men and returned across the Arkansas 
to Chouteau's camp. With two companions he went 
east to St. Louis the last of February, after a new 
outfit, making the distance in forty-six days. The 
next year these same two traders, with a company of 
forty-five men, were hunting in the Sangre de 
Cristo Range, and De Munn went again to Santa 
Fe, only to find a new Governor, and a very chilly 
reception. From that time they were In constant 
trouble with the authorities, and on May 24, 1817, 
they were arrested by Spanish troops, taken to Santa 

[III] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Fe, fettered, and thrown into prison. Finally, with 
all their property confiscated, except one horse 
each, the unfortunate party were released, with 
strict orders to leave Spanish territory. They ar- 
rived at St. Louis in September. 

This treatment, coupled with the misfortunes 
of three years before, pretty thoroughly halted all 
immediate efforts at trading with Santa Fe. There 
is some reason to believe that adventurers visited 
the settlements of New Mexico during this period, 
but they did not leave any historical records. 
A trader named Meriwether was captured by 
Spanish troops in 1819, and held prisoner for some 
time. Thirty years later he became Governor of 
New Mexico. But practically all commercial com- 
munication was severed between the two countries 
until 1821, when the Mexicans threw off the Span- 
ish yoke and seized the reins of government. 

Increase of Trade after Mexico Became Independent. 

This change resulted in the release of all Ameri- 
can prisoners, and opened a door for northern trad- 
ers. They were not slow in seizing the opportunity. 
William Becknell, of Missouri, was the first to con- 
duct a successful trading expedition to Santa Fe; 
he is also known as the father of the famous Santa 
Fe Trail. With a company of seventy men, he 
crossed the Missouri at Arrow Rock September i, 
1822, and in rapid march reached the upper Ar- 
kansas the last of the month. The party must have 
halted here some time, as it was the middle of 

[112] 



BEGINNINGS OF THE SANTA FE TRADE 

November before they arrived at Santa Fe. Here 
their goods were sold at a handsome profit. Beck- 
nell, with a single companion named McLaughlin, 
reached St. Louis the next January, but his men 
probably remained hunting in the mountains. 

The same year one Jacob Fowler of Kentucky 
led an independent exploring expedition, starting 
from Forth Smith. At Glenn's trading-post at the 
mouth of the Verdigris, he was joined by the pro- 
prietor, who acted as guide. The entire party of 
twenty proceeded up the north bank of the Ar- 
kansas. Glenn, with four men, went ahead as far 
as Santa Fe, where he was well received, and the 
others soon followed. It was the middle of July 
before they again reached the American settle- 
ments, bringing back with them a number of 
prisoners released by the Spaniards, including the 
members of McKnight's party. 

The success of these expeditions led to consider- 
able activity along the border. Braxton Cooper 
and Becknell were the earliest of the traders to get 
away, and both made successful trips in 1822. The 
trip of the latter is particularly important, because 
he went by way of the Cimarron instead of follow- 
ing the Arkansas to the mountains, as had formerly 
been done. This took him across a grim desert, and 
was a notable achievement. On this journey the 
first wagons were taken across the Plains. It was 
reported that, costing one hundred and fifty dollars 
each in Missouri, these wagons brought seven hun- 
dred dollars apiece in Santa Fe. This achievement 

[113] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

was accomplished four years oefore Ashley dragged 
his cannon to Salt Lake, and eight years before the 
first wagons crossed the more northern Plains. 

For some cause, possibly Indian hostility, little 
seems to have been accomplished in 1823, although 
a party of thirty under Colonel Cooper made the 
round trip successfully. But in 1824 the commerce 
of the prairies began to assume important propor- 
tions. From that date, with the exception of 
certain periods when the Indians were especially 
dangerous, the Santa Fe trade constantly increased, 
and each summer saw the laden caravans moving 
slowly westward along the broad Trail. The best 
equipped and organized expedition up to that date 
crossed the Missouri at Franklyn May 15, 1824. 
Le Grande, an experienced frontiersman, was in 
command, and in his party were eighty-one men, 
one hundred and fifty-six horses and mules, twenty- 
five wagons, and thirty thousand dollars' worth of 
merchandise. They made the round trip to Santa 
Fe in four months and ten days, bringing back one 
hundred and eighty thousand dollars in gold and 
silver, and ten thousand dollars' worth of furs. 

Unfortunately, from now on we are enabled to 
gain merely glimpses of events occurring along the 
Trail. Many, encouraged by such success, rushed 
into this trade, poorly equipped for the dangers of 
the route, and unacquainted with either Indian or 
Spanish customs. The result was often disastrous, 
leading to suffering, loss, and death. Small parties 
became the prey of savages, and there were many 

[114] 



BEGINNINGS OF THE SANTA FE TRADE 

instances of ill-guided parties wandering from the 
trail in search of a shorter route, and perishing 
miserably in the desert. Even the larger and ably 
commanded companies did not always escape scot- 
free. In 1824 Braxton Cooper, on his third trip, 
lost two men by Indian attack; and "The Missouri 
Intelligencer " contained numerous reports of lives 
sacrificed along the Trail. 

Summary of the Caravans from 1825 to 1834 

The following is Chittenden's careful summary 
of the caravans from 1825 ^^ 1^34) ^s gathered from 
the columns of various papers published at the time. 
While incomplete, it yet vividly pictures the im- 
portance of the trade, the number engaged, and the 
perils of the route. It contains many names long 
identified with border history: 

" 1825. — Becknell returned from Santa Fe June i. Marma- 
duke left Santa Fe May 31; date of arrival in Franklin not 
known. — Another party left Santa Fe in June, arriving in 
Franklin August i, with 500 mules and horses; pursued usual 
route; went from San Miguel to Canadian; down this stream 
300 miles; thence N. E. to Arkansas at mouth of Little Arkan- 
sas; thence through Osage country home; were roughly han- 
dled by Osages. — May 16, large party, 105 men, 34 wagons, 
240 mules and horses, Augustus Storrs, newly appointed consul 
to Santa Fe, Captain, left Fort Osage for Santa Fe; party re- 
turned by detachments at various times and by different routes 
during fall ; a number, among them Storrs, remained. — Another 
caravan left in May with 81 men, 200 horses and $30,000 
worth of goods ; no further record. — A party of Tennesseeans 
left Jackson, Tenn., for Santa Fe in April ; returned as far as 
Arkansas River with some of the above parties and then con- 
tinued down that stream. 

[115] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

" 1826. — Early in April a party arrived in Franklin from 
Santa Fe. About same time party of 100 left for Santa Fe. — 
About June i, another party of between 80 and lOO persons, 
with wagons and carriages of every description left Franklin 
for Santa Fe. — June 9, six or seven new and substantial wagons 
laden with goods arrived in Franklin en route for Santa Fe; 
owned by Mexican, Mr. Escudero, whb was in charge of them. 
This was about the beginning of Mexican proprietorship in 
trade, which monopolized more than half the business in 1843. 
— It appears that in September of this year a party under Ceran 
St. Vrain (if we may trust Inman) set out for Santa Fe, ar- 
riving there in November ; in this party was a runaway boy, Kit 
Carson, then 17 years old. 

" 1827. — Spring caravan from Franklin had 52 wagons and 
105 men; Ezekiel Williams, captain; August Storrs and David 
Workman along; the largest party yet; the only outgoing ex- 
pedition mentioned, but of course there were others; about 60 
of the party returned about Sept. 30, with 800 head of stock, 
valued at $28,000; absent four months; cleared 40 per cent. — 
May 31, . party returned from Santa Fe successful. — July 19, 
a party of twenty arrived two days before from Santa Fe with 
several hundred mules and $30,000 specie. 

" 1828. — About 1st of May caravan left Franklin for Santa 
Fe with $150,000 worth of merchandise and 150 persons. — 
May 18, a party was at Blue Springs en route to Santa Fe, with 
37 wagons, and $41,000 worth of goods. — September 12, 70 to 
80 persons arrived in Franklin from Santa Fe; venture profita- 
ble, but lost two men, Munroe and McNees. — Oct. 28, party 
of 25 arrived in Franklin from Santa Fe; had been attacked 
by Indians, who stole all their animals, killed John Means of 
Franklin, and compelled them to cache their specie. — Bent's 
Fort erected this year; according to some authorities, the fol- 
lowing year. 

" 1829. — Spring caravan consisted of about 70 persons and 
35 wagons; Charles Bent captain; military escort under Major 
Riley; Samuel C. Lamme killed en route; return cargo valued 
at $34,000; reached Franklin early in November. — There seems 
to have been no other caravan this year. 

[116] 



BEGINNINGS OF THE SANTA FE TRADE 

" 1830. — About May 22, party of 120 with 60 wagons left 
Franklin for Santa Fe, returning in October with fair profits. 

" 1831. — May 15, large party, of which Josiah Gregg was 
a member, numbering nearly 200 and including some ladies, 100 
wagons, two small cannon, and $200,000 worth of goods, left 
Independence, Mo., and having organized at Council Grove, left 
that place May 27; crossed the Arkansas June 13, and arrived 
at San Miguel in due course. — May 21, there was preparing 
at Franklin a large party for Santa Fe with about $200,000 
worth of goods. — Some of the members had put their entire 
property in the venture. — One of the above parties returned in 
October, after a successful trip. — October 20, a party of twenty- 
five or thirty persons passed Columbia, Mo., for Santa Fe, most- 
ly from Eastern States. It was this year that Smith, Jackson, 
and Sublette made their unfortunate journey across the plains, 
in which Smith lost his life. 

" 1832. — Principal caravan under Charles Bent; date of de- 
parture not given; returned about November i, with $100,000 
specie and $90,000 other property. — A party returning in the 
Fall and Winter of this year attacked by Indians on Canadian, 
January i, and lost all their property and one man. 

1833. — June 20, Spring caravan at Diamond Grove, 184 
men, 93 wagons, under Charles Bent ; November 9, 100 of 
above party returned with $100,000 specie and large amount of 
other property. — Gregg returned this Fall. 

"1834. — May 24, caravan of about 125 wagons; Gregg 
probably with it ; part of caravan under Captain Kerr left Santa 
Fe September 10, arrived home in October, 140 men and 40 
wagons, with returns amounting to over $200,000. 

" The record of the caravans during the following years is 
very obscure, although it is certain that they continued as here- 
tofore. Various causes contributed to the deficiency of record." 

Government Survey for a Road to New Mexico 

Even as early as 1825 this trade had assumed 
proportions to arouse Congressional action, ten 
thousand dollars being appropriated for marking 

[117] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the line of a road from the Missouri River to New 
Mexico, and twenty thousand dollars for securing 
concessions from the Indians. A peace commis- 
sion was appointed, and J. C. Brown selected as 
surveyor. Brown duly surveyed and marked the 
road by raised mounds from Fort Osage to the 
Arkansas, following the course of the old Trail. 
Instead of cutting across the Cimarron Desert, in 
accordance with the short Trail already used by the 
traders, this Government road was run up the Ar- 
kansas to Chouteau Island, and then headed di- 
rectly south to Taos. This route being so much 
longer, the traders naturally refused to use it. Con- 
sequently the survey was of but little practical 
value. 

Opposition of Indians to the Traders 

From the very beginning there was trouble with 
Indians. In a certain sense what is now Kansas 
was neutral -ground to the surrounding tribes, 
hunted over by Pawnees, Comanches, Cheyennes, 
Arapahoes, and Kiowas, but these were all bitterly 
opposed to the white invasion, and their raids on 
the slow-moving caravans were incessant. Few 
small outfits ever got through without a fight, and 
many of the larger were robbed, and their stock 
stampeded. Any straggling from the column was 
almost certain to result in the sudden dash down- 
ward of Indian horsemen. All the surrounding 
tribes were involved in these attacks, but the Co- 
manches were most feared, and most frequently 
named as the guilty marauders. 

[ii8] 



BEGINNINGS OF THE SANTA FE TRADE 

The passage became so dangerous that in 1829 
Government troops were ordered to escort the 
spring caravan as far as the Mexican frontier. Four 
companies of the Sixth Infantry, under Major Ben- 
net Riley, were assigned to this duty; leaving Round 
Grove early in June, they were more than a month 
on the march before reaching Chouteau Island, 
where they encamped to await the return of the 
traders. Evidently the Comanches had been on 
watch all the way, for scarcely had the now un- 
guarded caravan disappeared over the sand hills 
into Mexican territory, when it was fiercely at- 
tacked. A hard fight ensued, but Riley crossed the 
river with his men, drove ofif the Indians, and es- 
corted the wagons for another day's march. Not 
daring to take an armed force any farther into 
Mexico, he returned to the Arkansas, and went into 
camp, agreeing to wait there until October 10 for 
the return of the traders. 

The troops passed a summer full of excitement, 
being constantly annoyed by Indians who durst not 
attack openly. The tenth of October came, but no 
returning caravan. Waiting one more day in vain 
for its appearance Riley mustered his men, and the 
column began the long march eastward across the 
now brown prairie. Scarcely had they started when 
the caravan appeared. It was escorted by Mexican 
troops under command of Colonel Viscara, and a 
few days before had had a sharp fight with Co- 
manches, which caused delay. The soldiers of the 
two countries met cordially, and a review was held 

[119] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

out on the Plain, the rough frontiersmen of the 
caravan watching the military evolutions with 
great interest. " Never," says Chittenden, "since 
the days when Coronado's soldiers penetrated to the 
Kansas Plains, had the barren and treeless prairie 
witnessed a more interesting spectacle." Three days 
were passed thus in fraternal intercourse, and then 
the Americans moved eastward on their weary 
march. 

This policy of furnishing escorts did not greatly 
commend itself to the Government, and was not 
continued. The large caravans were able to pro- 
tect themselves, and to furnish troops for every 
little band making the venture was impossible. 
Morever, the greatest peril of attack was after 
crossing the Mexican frontier. Occasionally, how- 
ever, troops were sent, one such detachment consist- 
ing of sixty dragoons under Captain Wharton in 
1834; but this is said to have been the last military 
escort until 1843. 



[120] 



CHAPTER X 
INCIDENTS OF THE SANTA FE TRAIL 

Value of the Santa Fe Wagon Traffic 

VERY few realize to-day the value of the trade 
which during those years was carried on by 
means of wagon and pack mules across the prairies 
to far-off Santa Fe. At one time it rose to above 
$450,000 per annum, and for twenty-two years, 
from 1822 to 1843 inclusive, averaged over $130,000 
annually, a total of nearly three million dollars. 
When one considers the disadvantages under which 
it was carried on, the never-ceasing perils of the 
way, the long and weary distance travelled, the un- 
certainty as to the kind of reception that would be 
granted by the Mexican officials, and the limited 
capital of the traders, the result is little short of 
amazing. For this was a business carried on by 
small dealers. No great company ever operated on 
the Santa Fe Trail. Not until the last years of the 
trade did the investments average as high as one 
thousand dollars to each proprietor. In many cases 
it was carried on entirely upon credit. 

Picture of a Caravan 

The long journey across the Plains was gener- 
ally full of interest, and occasionally of excitement 
and danger. The Trail, as followed by nearly all 

[121] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

caravans after the first year of experiment, ex- 
tended from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, 
New Mexico, a distance of seven hundred and sev- 
enty-five miles. For the first one hundred and fifty 
miles, as far as Council Grove, the traders usually 
travelled independently, as the route led through a 
well-watered prairie country, very seldom invaded 
by hostile Indians. Here they halted and organ- 
ized into a caravan, electing various officers to serve 
during the trip. In the large trains these were 
quite numerous, including captain, two lieutenants, 
marshal, clerk, pilot, commander of guards, and 
occasionally a chaplain. The authority of these of- 
ficers was, however, small, and much of the loss of 
life occurred from lack of discipline. The draught 
animals were horses, mules, and oxen, and, as it 
was necessary for all to keep together, progress was 
slow, rarely averaging more than fifteen miles a 
day. The location of water generally determined 
the extent of a day's march. As to the personnel, 
every kind and degree of man was usually present, 
— sober representatives of business, rough frontiers- 
men, profane "bull-whackers" and "mule-skin- 
ners," reckless adventurers, travellers seeking new 
experience, Indians, and Mexicans. All were for 
the time upon a common level. " The wild and 
motley aspect of the caravan," observes Gregg, in 
his "Commerce of the Prairies," "would have 
formed an excellent subject for an artist's pencil." 



[122] 



INCIDENTS OF THE SANTA FE TRAIL 

The Route 

Fully organized and equipped, the wagons 
stretching out in long line and well guarded by 
men on foot and horseback, the caravan started 
forth from the pleasant camp at Council Grove 
upon the second stage of its advance. This took 
them to the ford of the Arkansas, known then as the 
Cimarron Crossing, about where Fort Dodge was 
subsequently located. As they slowly moved for- 
ward, the nature of the country began to change, 
and they emerged from the beautiful prairies onto 
the arid plains, while with every step they were 
exposed to the peril of Comanche and Pawnee 
raiders. The points of interest on the way, usually 
marking camping-places, were Diamond Springs, 
Lost Spring, Cottonwood and Turkey Creeks, the 
Little Arkansas, and Cow Creek. The main stream 
of the Arkansas was struck about the site of the 
present town of Ellinwood, the trail running up 
the left bank of that stream. On the way it passed 
Walnut Creek, and came to Pawnee Rock, long 
considered the most dangerous point on the route. 
This landmark was of sandstone, about twenty feet 
high, and stood to the right of the trail, two miles 
from the river. This was the scene of much des- 
perate Indian-fighting throughout the history of 
the caravans. Beyond Pawnee Rock the travellers 
passed Ash Creek, Pawnee Fork, Coon Creek, and 
" The Caches," so named because two early traders. 
Chambers and Biard, were obliged to hide their 

[123] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

goods there in 1822. Just beyond this they came 
to the ford across the Arkansas twenty miles above 
the present Dodge City, and three hundred and 
ninety-two miles from Independence, their journey 
half done. 

The crossing was dangerous because of quick- 
sand, the river bottom very treacherous. Teams 
were doubled, and the wagons taken across on a 
run. From now on the trail ran over Mexican soil 
and led across a barren, desolate desert of con- 
stantly shifting sand. After leaving Lower Spring, 
some sixty miles south from the Arkansas, the cara- 
van entered upon the most dreaded section of their 
route. For fifty-eight miles, requiring from two 
to three days to traverse, there was no water. Chit- 
tenden says: 

"In the earlier years the route was very uncertain, for the 
wagons made no impression on the hard, dry soil, and no trail 
was developed. This fact, and a total absence of landmarks, 
made the danger of getting lost a very serious one, for in that 
waterless country a day or two of lost time might prove disas- 
trous. This difficulty was removed in 1834 by ^ fortunate cir- 
cumstance. It happened that year, quite unusually, that there 
were continuous and heavy rains while the caravan was pass- 
ing this part of the route. The wagons cut a distinct furrow 
on the softened turf, which was followed by subsequent cara- 
vans until it developed into a permanent road. It is visible in 
many places to the present day." 

The "Old" Trail 

This portion of the old Trail was mostly In what 
is now southwestern Kansas, passing near localities 
now known as Ivanhoe, Conductor, Example, and 

[124] 



INCIDENTS OF THE SANTA FE TRAIL 

Zionville. Beyond this the route followed the val- 
ley of the Cimarron for eighty-five miles, to Mc- 
Nees' Creek, so named in memory of McNees, 
w^ho, with Monroe, was killed here in 1828. From 
this point the trail again became clear and easily 
followed, although still running through a desert 
country. Indeed, so little has the region changed 
between the Cimarron and Santa Clara Spring, a 
distance of one hundred and seventeen miles, that 
over much of the way the old trail can still be easily 
followed. It was at the latter point that the moun- 
tain branch from Bent's Fort on the Upper Ar- 
kansas united with the main trail. The remainder 
of the distance to Santa Fe, one hundred and thir- 
teen miles, is almost exactly covered by the rails of 
the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. In 
the old days the first abode of white men encoun- 
tered after leaving Council Grove was at Rio Gal- 
linas, seventy miles from Santa Fe, the first 
settlement being San Miguel. 

Tragical Incidents 

Almost every mile of this route became during 
those years of travel a scene of tragedy and suffer- 
ing. Few of these incidents have become matter of 
record, and the years have blotted out the memory 
of names, the deed of sacrifice or daring. From 
the pages of Chittenden, Gregg, and Inman we 
may cull a few from among the many. While the 
1826 caravan was slowly toiling up the Arkansas 
a man named Broadus accidentally discharged a 

[125] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

rifle into his arm. It was a dangerous wound, but 
the man delayed attending to it, until no other hope 
for saving his life was left than amputation. One 
of his companions, believed to be Kit Carson, per- 
formed the operation with the only instruments at 
hand, a handsaw, a butcher knife, and an iron bolt. 
This rude surgery proved effective, and in a few 
weeks the patient, constantly travelling with the 
caravan, was sound and well. 

Reference has already been made to a tragedy 
on the Cimarron in which McNees and Monroe 
lost their lives. No one ever knew the exact 
circumstances, but it is believed that the men having 
fallen asleep, the Indians crept up and shot them 
with their own guns. McNees was discovered 
dead, but Monroe lived while the wagon train ad- 
vanced forty miles. While they were burying 
him, somewhere in the lonely valley of the Cimar- 
ron, a party of Indians appeared across the river. 
They were apparently friendly and sought a parley, 
but the white men, aroused by the death of two of 
their number, fired, and killed all but one. 

This same year, 1828, chronicles another death 
by violence upon the trail. A small caravan, con- 
sisting of twenty-one men, one hundred and five 
mules, and five wagons, was bound East. At the 
upper Cimarron Springs they suddenly found them- 
selves completely surrounded by Comanches, who 
insolently ordered them to camp for the night. Be- 
lieving obedience would mean destruction, the little 
body began pushing resolutely forward. The In- 

[126] 



INCIDENTS OF THE SANTA FE TRIAL 

dians at once attacked, charging fiercely upon the 
rear guard, composed of Captain John Means and 
two men named Ellison and Bryant. These two 
escaped, but Captain Means was shot down, and 
scalped while yet alive. Unable to aid him, the 
caravan pressed on, constantly pursued by the sav- 
ages and fighting for every mile. Finally they were 
forced to abandon their wagons, and, taking ten 
thousand dollars in specie with them, travelled all 
night and day, and well into the next night, when 
they reached the Arkansas. Here they cached the 
specie, and pressed on to Walnut Creek so exhausted 
they could hardly travel. Five managed to reach 
Independence, where a rescue party was organized. 
The sufferers were found scattered along the trail 
all nearly dead from exhaustion and starvation. 

In 1833, according to "The Missouri Republi- 
can," a party of twelve traders were attacked on 
the Canadian River by a large force of Comanches. 
The fight lasted thirty-two hours, the whites in- 
trenching themselves. Two men, Mitchell and 
Pratte, were killed. The subsequent escape of the 
others to the settlements was the occasion of much 
suffering and hardship, the season being winter, 
and many of them wounded. It seems to be a fact, 
if one may judge from the paucity of reports pub- 
lished, that during the earlier years of the Trail, 
the various tribes of savages through whose coun- 
try it ran were not particularly hostile to the whites. 
The attacks on the traders were comparatively few, 
and can generally be traced to some previous atroc- 

[127] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

ity perpetrated upon the Indians. Later, it is true, 
war raged along the border, and the Santa Fe Trail 
drank deep of blood, as will be described in some 
of the following pages, but during the passage of 
the trading caravans back and forth, from 1825 to 
1840, more men died on the journey from disease 
than from Indian attack. Again and again the 
wagons rolled over the long route without any ad- 
venture occurring to break the dull monotony of 
travel, and, except for the constant possibility of 
peril, the march became a business routine. 

Hostility of Texans to Mexican Caravans 

One occurrence, happening just outside the date 
limit quoted above, needs to be mentioned here. 
This was the expedition of Texans to the Trail for 
the purpose of robbing Mexican traders. Texas 
was then a Republic, and its people's hatred of the 
Mexicans waxed strong. In 1843 a certain Colonel 
Snively led some two hundred men across the des- 
erts to the Arkansas for the purpose of attacking 
Mexican caravans. Here he was joined by another 
party of Texans under a man named Warfield, who 
had just had an unpleasant experience in his attack 
on the Mexican village of Mora. His men had 
reached the Arkansas on foot, and pretty thor- 
oughly demoralized. These two worthies advanced 
their combined forces into the sand hills south of 
the river, where they ambuscaded some of General 
Armizo's soldiers, and killed eighteen, without suf- 
fering any loss themselves. One Mexican got away, 

[128] 



INCIDENTS OF THE SANTA FE TRAIL 

and rode south with his news, the receipt of which 
caused Kit Carson to be sent back up the Trail to 
warn an approaching caravan. After a desperate 
ride he arrived in time to checkmate the Texans. 

All the Mexican caravans were not so fortunate. 
Don Antonio Jose Chavez left Santa Fe for Inde- 
pendence in February, 1843, ^i^^ ^ large outfit, 
including a private carriage and a retinue of serv- 
ants. His known wealth had made him a marked 
man, and a plot was concocted for robbing him, 
the leader being a Texan named McDaniel. It 
was at Cow Creek, near the present town of Hutch- 
inson, Kansas, that they lay in wait for their victims. 
The tragedy was soon over, the employees shot 
down in cold blood, while the Don was tortured 
until he revealed his treasure, and then deliberately 
murdered. But unknown to the murderers one 
Pvlexican teamster escaped, rode furiously across the 
prairie to Leavenworth, where the Government 
then had a military post, and immediately returned 
guiding a detachment of United States troops. On 
the way an old scout and plainsman named Hobbs 
was met with and pressed into service, and, inside 
of four days the avengers had overtaken the gang, 
who were unconscious of pursuit. They killed one, 
and made the others prisoners. After trial in St. 
Louis, some were hanged and others imprisoned. 



[129] 



CHAPTER XI 
EARLY TRANSPORTATION ON THE PLAINS 

Indian Methods of Transportation 

THE earliest method of transporting goods 
across the Plains must have been upon the 
shoulders of men, yet long before Cabega de Vaca 
wandered through his ten thousand miles of wilder- 
ness in search of Mexico, the Indians of the Plains 
had taken a step upward, and learned to shift their 
burdens onto the backs of patient dogs. Castaneda, 
the historian of Coronado's expedition to the buf- 
falo plains in 1541, writes: "They go like Arabs 
with their tents, and their droves of dogs harnessed 
with saddle-cloths, and pack-saddles, and a cinch. 
When their load shifts, the dogs howl for someone 
to straighten it for them." One hundred years later 
another Spanish wanderer, Benavides, writes: 

"I cannot refrain from mentioning something rather in- 
credible and ridiculous, which is that when these Indians go off 
to trade the whole rancherias go, with their women and chil- 
dren. They live in tents made of buffalo hide, very thin and 
tanned ; and these tents they carry on pack-trains of dogs, har- 
nessed with their pack-saddles. The dogs are medium sized, and 
it is customary to have five hundred dogs in one pack train, one 
in front of another; and thus the people carry their merchan- 
dise laden, which they barter for cotton cloth, and other things 
they need." 

By the time the first American adventurers had 
penetrated beyond the Missouri, the horse had come 

[130] 



EARLY TRANSPORTATION 

to the Indian, and been broken to the duties of a 
burden-bearer. The horse came from the South, 
gradually overrunning the Plains in wild bands, 
until the savage tribes as far north as the Missouri 
were well supplied with them. These wdld horses 
were the descendants of those Arabian steeds 
brought to the New World by the Spanish con- 
querors of Mexico. As we think of their probable 
number ranging the Great Plains as long ago as 
1750, it is interesting to take note of their small be- 
ginnings, when Cortez, in 15 19, brought the first 
horses to the mainland of North America. Accord- 
ing to the historian, Bernal Diaz, there were six- 
teen horses of the captains, and five mares ; and he 
names and describes the latter with care, mention- 
ing the colt born on their voyage from Cuba. And 
horses had a price in those days in this new land, 
when for many a year the market held firm at a 
thousand pieces of eight. But the increase of the 
stock the Spaniards imported was marvellous, and 
the prices fell accordingly until, by 1728, horses 
were down to six dollars each, and mules to ten. It 
was the wild horse, straying from its old-time Mex- 
ican owner into the freedom of the wilderness, cap- 
tured again by the roaming savage and reduced to 
slavery, which, almost in a day, lifted the Indian 
into a new age of racial development. The tribes 
of the Plains knew and used the horse for trans- 
portation long before men of English blood came 
wandering into their villages. Yet their accepted 
method was extremely crude, being merely the 

[131] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

utilization of two sticks attached to the sides of a 
horse, the ends dragging on the ground. It was the 
same plan by which they had loaded their dogs. 
The French called it the travois, and its use was 
universal from the Great Lakes to Texas. 

Spanish Methods 

The next step in the advance of Plains trans- 
portation was the pack-train of the early Spaniards. 
The idea was merely an importation from Europe, 
but its value in the development of the West is be- 
yond computation. The work of the muleteer be- 
came almost an art, and there were few regions so 
isolated, either in mountain or plain, as to remain 
long unvisited by the pack-train. The distance 
travelled, and the value of merchandise and specie 
transported in this manner, are beyond estimate. In 
the early history of the Southwest there were ordi- 
nary commercial routes, regularly travelled over, 
more than fifteen hundred miles long. In 1774 
Captain Anza took such a train from Sonora to San 
Francisco, and Coronado wandered the Plains 
nearly two years, a pack-train bearing his supplies. 
On the old Vera Cruz Trail it is said that seventy 
thousand mules were employed each year, the com- 
merce carried on their backs reaching yearly a total 
of sixty-four million dollars. In those days every- 
thing went mule-back, the only concession made to 
travellers unable to ride in this way being a rude 
litter on shafts swung to the saddles of two mules 
walking in single file. Regular commercial routes, 

[132] 



EARLY TRANSPORTATION 

over which the pack-mules travelled in long col- 
umns, were early established between Mexico and 
the border Spanish settlements along the Rockies, 
and thus was the pack-train introduced upon the 
Plains. 

As early, possibly, as the beginning of the sev- 
enteenth century the first wheeled vehicle made its 
appearance in this neighborhood, but was probably 
never used on the Plains outside New Mexico. This 
was the carreta, built without nails or a scrap of 
iron, being a rude ox-cart, so heavy that no other 
motive power could pull it. It had two wheels, 
made from three sections of Cottonwood logs, fast- 
ened to a wooden axle, and without tires. Some 
carretas were still in use within the memory of liv- 
ing men; their creaking and groaning while in 
motion imparted to the traveller a sensation never 
to be forgotten. The first wheeled vehicles ever 
used within the limits of what is now the United 
States were those Zacatecas wagons with which 
Juan de Onate travelled in 1596 in his expedition 
to colonize New Mexico. We only know they were 
hauled by oxen, and that for two centuries follow- 
ing, a fairly regular communication was kept up 
over the same route. 

The Mexican Pack-Train 

The first overland commerce established by 
Americans was that along the Santa Fe Trail, and 
until 1827 it was carried on entirely by pack-trains. 
After that date wagons were introduced, yet the 

[133] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

other method was never wholly abandoned. The 
Mexican pack-train, or atajo, adopted by the Amer- 
icans almost in its entirety, was an institution 
worthy of description. Inman tells the story as 
follows : 

"A pack-mule was termed a mula de carga, and his equip- 
ment consisted of several parts; first the saddle, or aparejo, a 
nearly square pad of leather stuffed with hay, which covered 
the animal's back on both sides equally. The best idea of its 
shape will be formed by opening a book in the middle and 
placing it saddle fashion on the back of a chair. Each half then 
forms a half of the contrivance. Before the aparejo w?s ad- 
justed to the mule, a zalea, or raw sheep-skin, made soft by 
rubbing, was put on the animal's back to prevent chafing, and 
over it the saddle-cloth, or xerga. On top of both was placed 
the aparejo, which was cinched by a wide grass bandage. This 
band was drawn as tightly as possible, to such an extent that 
tlie poor brute grunted and groaned under the apparently pain- 
ful operation, and when fastened he seemed to be cut in two. 
This always appeared to be the very acme of cruelty to the un- 
initiated, but it is the secret of successful packing; the firmer 
the saddle, the more comfortably the mule can travel, with less 
risk of being chafed or bruised. The aparejo is furnished with 
a huge crupper, and this appendage is really the most cruel of 
all, for it is almost sure to lacerate the tail. Hardly a Mexican 
mule in the old days of the trade could be found which did not 
bear the scar of this rude supplement to the immense saddle." 

The load carried by each mule thus equipped 
averaged three hundred pounds, and was hoisted 
onto the saddle by two packers, sometimes in a 
single package, sometimes in two, so prepared as 
to balance themselves. This load, or carga, was 
secured by a stout rope, drawn as tight as possible 
under the mule's belly, and laced round the packs. 

[134] 



EARLY TRANSPORTATION 

The operation seldom required more than five min- 
utes. To quote Inman again : 

"An old time atajo, or caravan of pack-mules, generally 
numbered from fifty to two hundred, and it travelled a Jornada, 
or day's march of about twelve or fifteen miles. This day's 
journey was made without any stopping at noon, because if a 
pack-mule is allowed to rest he generally tries to lie down, and, 
with his heavy load, it is difficult for him to get on his feet again. 
Sometimes he is badly strained in so doing, perhaps ruined for- 
ever. When the train starts out on the trail the mules are so 
tightly bound with the ropes that they move with great diffi- 
culty; but the saddle soon settles itself, and the ropes become 
loosened so that they have frequently to be tightened. On the 
march the muleteer is kept busy nearly all the time; the packs 
are constantly changing their position, frequently losing their 
balance and falling off; sometimes saddle, pack, and all swing 
under the animal's belly, and he must be unloaded, and repacked 
again." 

The cost of such transportation was so low that 
competition, even by wagons in level country, was 
nearly impossible. Mules were almost a drug on 
the market, and the muleteer received only five 
dollars a month with rations, the latter merely corn 
and beans. If he desired meat he had to hunt for 
it. On the trail every employee had his place and 
duty. Each separate band of mules was led by a 
bell-mare, having a bell strapped about her neck. 
It was part of the work of the cook of the party to 
lead this bell-mare on the march, and the humble 
pack-animals never failed to follow. 

The Prairie Schooner 

After 1824 wagons came into general use for 
the transportation of this prairie commerce, those 

[135] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

commonly used being manufactured in Pittsburg, 
and capable of carrying about a ton and a half. 
They were usually drawn by eight mules or an 
equal number of oxen. Later in the history of the 
trail much larger wagons were employed, often 
hauled by as many as twelve animals. The name 
" prairie schooner" was applied to them. The first 
caravan of wagons to cross the Plains — that experi- 
mental trip of 1824 — was drawn by horses, and ac- 
companied by a long pack-train of mules. Oxen 
were first used in 1829, and ever after were com- 
mon on the Plains, the large Missouri-bred mules 
necessary for the service being quite expensive. The 
cost of outfitting for the long, dangerous journey 
was considerable. During the height of the trade 
the wagons cost two hundred dollars each; mules 
one hundred dollars each; harness one hundred dol- 
lars per wagon; water-kegs and extras twenty-five 
dollars per wagon. As at least ten mules were re- 
quired for each wagon the initial cost per wagon 
was about one thousand three hundred dollars, or 
for a train of twenty wagons, — as small a number 
as it was safe to travel with through the Indian 
country, — twenty-six thousand dollars. Besides 
this, extra mules had to be taken for use in case of 
accident. The wagon-master was paid one hundred 
dollars per month, each driver twenty-five dollars, 
while there were herders, cooks, and roustabouts 
to be considered. Altogether it was a venture 
of importance, and the ambitious Santa Fe 
trader had to invest heavily. In the last years of 

[136] 




Copyright, liij coiirtesij S. S. MrCliire Vu. 



PRIMITIVE MODES OE TRAFEIC ACROSS THE PLAINS 

THE CARRETA OF THE SOUTH — A MULE PATH AND PACK TRAIN — ONE OF THE 
EARLIEST AMERICAN PACK TRAINS 



EARLY TRANSPORTATION 

the trade fully two hundred wagons were upon the 
Trail. 

Hostility of the Mexican Government to the Traders 

For a large part of the time during which this 
trade flourished, the Mexican Government was 
openly hostile to the traders. For several years 
westward-bound caravans would halt on the Cimar- 
ron, and send scouts forward to ascertain the feel- 
ing of the authorities. From the continual changes 
in administration no one knew what would be the 
nature of their reception in Santa Fe. Under the 
governorship of Armijo a duty of five hundred dol- 
lars per wagon, whether large or small, and re- 
gardless of what it contained, was charged against 
the helpless trader. To offset this robbery the 
freight of three wagons was often transferred to one 
when within a few miles of Santa Fe, and the empty 
vehicles burned. To avoid paying the export duty 
charged on specie, false axle-trees were attached to 
the wagons, in which the money was concealed. 

Stampedes 

During these prairie journeys the perils of a 
stampede were dreaded almost more than Indian 
attack, and, indeed, probably resulted in greater 
loss. Night or day this was a never-absent danger. 
The mule, patient and good worker as he is, is yet 
as easily frightened as a Texas steer. A prairie dog 
barking at the entrance of his burrow, a strange 
figure in the distance, even the shadow of a pass- 

[137] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

ing cloud, has been known to start every animal in 
the train into a wild run. They seemingly go mad, 
rushing into one another, and becoming so entan- 
gled that frequently drivers and mules are crushed 
to death. They have dashed over precipices and 
been killed, or strayed so far away as to be lost in 
the desert. Inman quotes an incident illustrating 
this, which occurred during a winter military cam- 
paign in 1868. The mules of three wagons stam- 
peded, dashed out of sight, and were never found. 
Ten years later a farmer who had taken up a claim 
in what is now Rush County, Kansas, discovered in 
a ravine on his place the bones of some animals, de- 
cayed parts of harness, and the remains of three 
army wagons. These were undoubtedly the lost 
stampeders. 

The Starting of a Caravan 

The Starting of one of these great caravans of 
the Plains on its day's journey was a scene long to 
be remembered, the wild and motley aspect of the 
men fitting accurately into the barren surroundings 
of the desert, and making a vivid picture. " Catch 
up ! Catch up ! " is the order of the captain, and in- 
stantly all is uproar and apparent confusion. 
Gregg's description is complete: 

"The uproarious bustle which follows, the hallooing of those 
in pursuit of animals, the exclamations which the unruly brutes 
call forth from their wrathful drivers, together with the clatter 
of bells, the rattle of yokes and harness, the jingle of chains, 
all conspire to produce an uproarious confusion. It is some- 
times amusing to observe the athletic wagoner hurrying an ani- 
mal to its post — to see him heave upon the halter of a stubborn 

[138] 



EARLY TRANSPORTATION 

mule, while the brute as obstinately sets back, determined not to 
move a peg till his own good pleasure thinks it proper to do so. 
I have more than once seen a driver hitch a harnessed animal 
to the halter, and by that process haul his mulishness forward, 
while each of his four projected feet would leave a furrow be- 
hind. 'All 's set ! ' is finally heard from some teamster — 'All 's 
set!' is directly responded from every quarter. 'Stretch out!' 
immediately vociferates the captain. Then the ' heps,' to the 
drivers, the cracking of whips, the trampling of feet, the occa- 
sional creak of wheels, the rumbling of the wagons, while ' Fall 
in ! ' is heard from headquarters, and the train is strung out, and 
in a few moments has started on its long journey." 



[139] 



PART II.— THE STRUGGLE FOR POSSES- 
SION 



CHAPTER I 
THE FIRST EMIGRANTS 

Aspect of the Plains about 1840. 

THE Great Plains as they appeared about 1840 
now lie outspread before us. To the mass of 
American citizens living in the Eastern States that 
territory was then a forbidding desert never to be 
occupied by man. Only to the adventurers of the 
border, the hardy trappers, the traders travelling to 
Santa Fe, and those few army officers who had thus 
early penetrated the miles of prairie, were its great 
possibilities vaguely apparent. It was yet barren, 
desolate, and deserted save for its roaming Indian 
inhabitants. Much of it remained unknown except 
to wandering and illiterate hunters. The long 
stretch of the Missouri River had been navigated; 
parties of mountain men had made a passable trail 
up the valley of the Platte; the traders' caravans 
had gouged out a road to Santa Fe across prairie 
and desert; some shanties of logs, and a few stock- 
aded forts, for purposes of Indian trading, were 
scattered here and there along the larger streams 
between the Missouri and the Rockies, mere pin- 
pricks in that wide expanse. In eastern Kansas 
and Nebraska a few hardy settlers were already be- 

[140] 



THE FIRST EMIGRANTS 

ginning to establish habitations, but these, as yet, 
scarcely ventured to advance beyond sight of the 
Missouri. In Texas there were settlements, made 
possible by a militant advance against Mexico; yet 
these exercised little if any direct influence over the 
destinies of the more northern Plains. The Gov- 
ernment, because of the need of protecting the San- 
ta Fe trade, had established a military post at Fort 
Leavenworth, but beyond this, and the above men- 
tioned narrow roads of passage, the Great Plains 
remained an abode of savagery, yet to be conquered 
and reclaimed. Already those men and women to 
whom this gigantic task fell were turning their ad- 
venturous eyes westward. 

The Turning toward the Northwest and the Southwest 

The contest may be said to have fairly begun 
with the first faint trickle of emigration toward the 
Pacific coast, and to have become stimulated into 
earnest activity by the results of the struggle with 
Mexico. The first turned the thoughts of the peo- 
ple toward the permanent settlement of the North- 
west; the second brought to men generally a new 
conception of the possibilities of the Southwest. 
Thus was the curtain slightly lifted, and the period 
of exploration verged into that of the struggle for 
possession which prefaced permanent habitation. 
The beginnings of this new movement, although 
distinct, were slow and uncertain, yet in a compara- 
tively brief space of time — as time is reckoned in a 
nation's history — the first little wave had swollen 

[141! 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

into a torrent; the trapper, the trader, the soldier, 
the emigrant, each in turn, passed along the dim 
wilderness trails, leaving the blackened embers of 
camp-fires, the deep ruts of wheels, the ghastly rel- 
ics of battle, yet ever making way for massing set- 
tlers behind, constantly broadening out the vista, 
and making known the truth. It is this period of 
Indian war and pioneer emigration that consti- 
tutes the second advance in the story of the Great 
Plains. 

Missionaries Bound for the West 

To tell it rightly one must hark back slightly 
farther than the date set, for as early as 1834 trav- 
ellers other than traders or trappers passed over 
the then barely traceable trail leading to distant 
Oregon. These pioneers of a great movement were 
missionaries, and they travelled in small separate 
parties from that year until 1839. The Lee brothers, 
Jason and Daniel, passed this way first. The fol- 
lowing year Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman 
travelled over the long trail. In 1836, Whitman, 
who had returned East, came back accompanied by 
his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Spalding, and W. G. Gray, 
It is said that at the trappers' rendezvous on the 
Sweetwater these pioneer white women received a 
royal welcome at the hands of the gathered moun- 
tain men, and were escorted by them some distance 
on their journey. The remainder of the way they 
travelled under the armed protection of the Ameri- 
can Fur Company. The 1838 party was composed 
of Mr. and Mrs. Walker, Mr. and Mrs. Eells, and 

[142] 



THE FIRST EMIGRANTS 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith. In 1839 Mr. and Mrs. Grif- 
fin, with Mr. and Mrs. Munger, made the journey. 
These devoted missionaries labored long in the 
Oregon country, several of them yielding up their 
lives for the faith. Dr. Whitman, a few years later, 
made a heroic ride across the mountains and Plains 
in midwinter, suffering incredible hardships, to 
bear to Washington the news of the British 
encroachments on the American settlements on the 
Columbia. To his self-sacrifice and patriotism the 
Northwest is greatly indebted. 

Not far behind these earliest forerunners of 
Protestantism came the Catholic devotee. This was 
P. J. de Smet, a Jesuit, who, under orders of his 
Superior, came to the upper Missouri in 1840 to 
minister to the Indian tribes, and whose life hence- 
forth was devoted to their service. The early his- 
tory of Catholic missions in the northern Rockies 
is little more than the record of this one devoted 
missionary. Father de Smet travelled extensively 
over the Plains and mountains, and wrote his expe- 
riences most interestingly. He was loved by the 
Indians and never molested, the visits of the " Black 
Robe" always being welcome in the wigwams. His 
principal labors were among the Flatheads. 

The First Band of Settlers 

It was in 1841 that the first band of settlers be- 
gan crossing the Plains and mountains to Oregon 
and California. All who had passed that way be- 
fore were but wanderers, with no settled purpose 

[143] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

of peopling this new land. But these were settlers, 
men, women, children, and their slow passage west- 
wiiid marked decisively the beginning of a new era. 
They toiled slowly up the valley of ihe Platte, find- 
ing their only halting-place in all those thousands 
of miles the rude fur-trader's fort on Laramie Riv- 
er. These were truly the pioneers, and they were 
so few, only fifteen; Joel P. Walker, wife, sister, 
three sons, and two daughters; Mr. Burrows, wife, 
and child ; Mr. Warfield, wife, and child, and a man 
named Nichols. The loneliness, the terrors, the 
wonders of that journey to the women and children 
peering out from under the wagon covers as they 
moved on through those weary months, can scarcely 
be imagined. Close behind them toiled over the 
same dim trail Bidwell's company bound for Cali- 
fornia; but at Fort Bridger this party turned more 
directly west following the route later made famous 
by the gold-hunters. A Mrs. Kelsey was the only 
woman in the Bidwell company. So in the same 
year the first emigrants passed over the long trails 
to both Oregon and California. 

Succeeding Bands 

From this date the stream constantly increased 
in volume. In 1842 a company of one hundred and 
twelve men, women, and children, under command 
of Elijah White, went through to the Columbia. 
They had a train of eighteen great Pennsylvania 
wagons, with cattle, pack-mules, and horses. The 
next year an army passed that way, consisting of a 

[144] 



THE FIRST EMIGRANTS 

thousand men, women, and children, bringing with 
them draft cattle, herds of cows and horses, farming 
implements, and household goods. This marked the 
beginning of the end of the old regime. Never 
again were things the same either on plains or amid 
the mountains. The period of permanent occu- 
pancy had begun. 

The Mormon Hegira 

Close Upon the heels of these earlier emigrants 
came the great Mormon hegira of 1847. Words 
can scarcely picture this movement of thousands, in 
all conditions of life — men, women, and children, — 
bearing with them all their worldly possessions, and 
for months travelling across the wide Plains, seek- 
ing that home which they finally discovered amid 
the deserts of Utah. Driven from Illinois by en- 
raged citizens, leaving behind a deserted city, this 
body of religious enthusiasts, under the leadership 
of Brigham Young, struggled through Iowa, suf- 
fering torments from the bitter cold of winter, and 
the floods of spring, until their second winter's 
camp was established on the banks of the Elkhorn 
in Nebraska. 

But this halt was only temporary. April 9, 
1847, the advance guard departed westward, and 
all others were expected to follow as soon as possi- 
ble. The party was furnished with a wagon, two 
oxen, two milch cows, and a tent, for every ten per- 
sons. Each wagon was supplied with a thousand 
pounds of flour, fifty pounds of rice, sugar, and 

[■45] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

bacon; thirty of beans, twenty of dried apples or 
peaches, twenty-five of salt, five of tea, a gallon of 
vinegar, and ten bars of soap. Every able-bodied 
man was compelled to carry some kind of firearm, 
and do his share of guard duty. The wagons were 
beds, kitchens, and occasionally boats. The average 
day's journey was thirteen miles. This advance 
company were three months in reaching the valley 
of Great Salt Lake, which was chosen by their 
leader as the situation for their new home. 

Behind them, in great trains, reaching in almost 
solid procession from the distant banks of the Mis- 
souri, toiled the faithful followers of the prophet. 
This passing of the disciples of the Church of Lat- 
ter Day Saints across the wilderness was one of the 
most wonderful sights witnessed upon the Great 
Plains, equalled, it is true, and possibly surpassed, 
in mere point of numbers a few years later by the 
rush of gold-seekers to California; yet, when one 
considers the difference in organization and pur- 
pose, this vast exodus remains almost without paral- 
lel in history. Nor did this strange migration cease 
with the passing of these pioneers. Earnest mis- 
sionaries of the faith toiled with unremitting fervor 
in the Eastern States and Europe, their numerous 
converts, usually poor in all but religious enthusi- 
asm, pressing westward in continuous stream across 
the prairies up to the time of the coming of the rail- 
roads. There was no total cessation of the tide. 
Thousands crossed the Great Plains dragging hand- 
carts containing their baggage, although the Church 

[146] 



THE FIRST EMIGRANTS 

authorities provided wagons for the women, chil- 
dren, and sick. These hand-carts were primitive 
but strong, the shafts five feet long, of hickory or 
oak, with cross pieces. Under the bed of the cart 
was a wooden axle-tree, the wheels being also made 
of wood, with a light iron band. The entire weight 
averaged about sixty pounds. To each hundred 
persons the Church furnished twenty of these hand- 
carts, five tents, three or four milch cows, and a 
wagon to be drawn by three yoke of oxen. The 
quantity of clothing and bedding taken was limited 
to seventeen pounds per capita, and the freight of 
each hand-cart was expected to be about one hun- 
dred pounds. 

Route of the Mormons 

The large majority of this Church army trav- 
elled westward from Council Blufi^s up the valley 
of the Platte, following a trail now cut deep into 
the soil of the prairie. Yet there were side streams 
from points farther south, the one most used lead- 
ing from Independence, Missouri, northwest across 
the Plains until it united with the main current of 
travel at Grand Island. This, a little later, became 
an important route for emigrant trains bound for 
California and Oregon, and still later was raced 
over by overland coaches and the pony express. 
Others of the Mormons, although usually travel- 
ling in much smaller parties, advanced up the val- 
ley of the Arkansas, and skirted the eastern base 
of the Rockies on their long journey to the " Prom- 
ised Land." Such a company brought the first 

[147] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

American families within the present limits of Col- 
orado, residing on the site of Pueblo throughout 
the Winter of 1846-47. Houses were erected by 
them, a number of children were born, numerous 
deaths occurred, and there is a record of one wed- 
ding. 

Sufferings on the Journey 

During the course of this passage across the 
wilderness much suffering and hardship occurred, 
but there is no record of Indian attack. Exposure 
and death left many along the trails. One large 
company, having yet a thousand miles to travel, de- 
cided to press on as late as the last of November, 
thus braving a winter on the Plains and in the 
mountains. At first they travelled fifteen miles a 
day, but were soon delayed by breaking axles, and 
other accidents. At Wood River their cattle stam- 
peded, and thirty head were lost. The beef cattle, 
milch cows, and heifers were yoked up, but did lit- 
tle service, and the allowance of food was reduced 
to one meal a day. On reaching Laramie, where 
they hoped to procure provisions, they found none. 
Again the ration was reduced, men able to work 
each receiving twelve ounces of flour daily; women 
and old men, nine ounces; children, four to eight. 
The weather grew severe, and they suffered greatly 
from cold. Before them loomed the grim moun- 
tains already white with snow. The old and infirm 
began to die, and each camp was a burying-ground. 
Then the able-bodied commenced falling out, some 
dying in the shafts of their carts. While yet six- 

[148] 








AT 'X 



THE FIRST EMIGRANTS 

teen miles from the nearest possible camp on the 
Sweetwater, it began to snow, and their last ration 
of flour was issued. At this moment of despair 
messengers reached them, saying a train of supplies 
was only two or three days ahead. Encouraged by 
this news, the survivors managed to drag forward, 
but during the night five died of cold and exhaus- 
tion. 

The next morning the snow was a foot deep, and 
they had left only two barrels of biscuits, a few 
pounds of sugar and dried apples, with a quarter 
of a sack of rice. They determined to remain in 
camp, sending forward the captain and one of the 
elders in search of the supply train. During those 
three days of waiting the sufferings of the party 
were intense. Many sickened and died. One 
writer says: 

"Some expired in the arms of those who were themselves 
almost at the point of death. Mothers wrapped with their dying 
hands the remnant of their tattered clothing around the wan 
forms of their perishing infants. The most pitiful sight of all 
was to see strong men begging for the morsel of food that had 
been set aside for the sick and helpless." 

Late in the night of the third day the help so 
long waited for reached them. Yet it came almost 
too late to save. In Inman's words: 

"Some were already beyond all human aid, some had lost 
their reason, and around others the blackness of despair had 
settled, all efforts to arouse them from their stupor being un- 
availing. Each day the weather grew colder, and many were 
frost-bitten, losing fingers, toes, or ears, one sick man, who held 
on to the wagon bars to avoid jolting, having all his fingers 

ti49] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

frozen. At a camping ground at Willow Creek, fifteen people 
were buried, thirteen of them frozen to death." 

Beyond this point the weather moderated, and, 
when the struggling remnant arrived at Salt Lake, 
they had a death roll of sixty-seven out of four hun- 
dred and twenty. Martin's party, six hundred 
strong, journeying a few miles behind, also suffered 
severely upon the North Platte, but got through 
with less serious loss of life. 

The number passing westward in this Mormon 
movement has never been estimated, but certain fig- 
ures can be given as evidence of its importance. 
The first scouting party, led in person by Brigham 
Young, numbered 143 men and convoyed a train of 
73 wagons. Next behind these followed 1,200 men, 
women, and children with 397 wagons; then the 
Kimball company of 662 persons and 226 wagons; 
then those under charge of Richards, 526 people 
with 169 wagons. 

Increased Migration to Oregon 

At the same time the migration to Oregon was 
steadily increasing. In 1849 fourteen hundred Mor- 
mons passed Fort Bridger. A peculiar fact of these 
early migrations is that few, if any, paused en route. 
Not even rumors of gold deposits in the Black Hills, 
or the Big Horn Range, sufficed to halt the current 
flowing steadily toward Salt Lake and the Pacific. 
Occasionally a few adventurers were thus turned 
aside, yet their discoveries, if any, made no per- 
ceptible mark on history. An illustration is af- 

[150] 



THE FIRST EMIGRANTS 

forded by the story of thirty men deserting from 
Captain Douglas's party in 1852. They started out 
to prospect in the Black Hills, but were never again 
heard of. Bancroft reports that in 1876 evidence 
of their work was discovered on Battle Creek, to- 
gether with fragments of skeletons, and numerous 
mining tools. They were probably killed by In- 
dians. 



[iji] 



CHAPTER II 
EARLY ARMY SERVICE 

The Search for Passes across the Rockies 

IN- BOTH exploration and exploitation of this 
Western country the Government was extremely- 
slow to act. After the return of Lewis and Clark 
from the Northwest, and Pike from the Southwest, 
nothing beyond the futile expedition of Long to the 
Rocky Mountains was attempted until 1842. It is 
true that in the meantime Captain Bonneville had 
traversed the Plains and made numerous discoveries 
in the mountains beyond, which had added to the 
world's knowledge; but his journeyings were with- 
out Government sanction, and undertaken merely 
from a spirit of adventure. During his prolonged 
absence from duty his name was even stricken from 
the army roll, to be replaced, in recognition of his 
achievements, some years later. 

In 1842, however, the increasing migration west- 
ward induced the authorities to fit out an army ex- 
pedition for the discovery of the best possible routes 
through the mountains to the Pacific. The fact 
that such trails had already been discovered, and 
long followed, by the mountain men in their trap- 
ping and trading journeys, was seemingly ignored 
as being unworthy of credence. In this connection 
an anecdote of old Jim Bridger, although occurring 
much later, is characteristic of this official blind- 

[152] 



EARLY ARMY SERVICE 

ness to knowledge already possessed by many. 
While seeking a low pass for the Union Pacific 
Railroad, the chief engineer sent a hurried message 
to this famous trapper, then living in Missouri, to 
meet him at the base of the Rockies for important 
consultation. Bridger made the trip by stage, and 
his disgust was deep indeed when he arrived and 
learned the cause of his long, hard journey. Swiftly 
he described and sketched the exact pass required, 
and through which the railroad now runs. He 
added angrily that he could have sent them all they 
desired from his own home, if they had only in- 
formed him first what was wanted. His expres- 
sions of contempt for such unnecessary disturbance 
of his peaceful old age were profanely eloquent. 

Fremont's Fitness for the Work 

The officer selected by the War Department for 
this purpose of unlocking the secrets of the West, 
was Lieutenant John C. Fremont, who had already 
travelled the Plains in company with Nicollet. He 
was connected with the Corps of Topographical 
Engineers, and in many ways was well fitted for the 
task. Upon his mountain adventures it is unneces- 
sary to dwell, although most of his discoveries were 
rather to be credited to those well selected scouts 
who guided him, old mountain men, of whom the 
most celebrated were Kit Carson, Jim Baker, and a 
Frenchman named Godey. In prosecuting his work 
Fremont made four trips across the Plains, three 
under orders of the Government, and one on his 

[153] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

own individual account. The information thus 
gathered was of great value to subsequent migra- 
tion, and gave the Lieutenant wide fame as explorer 
and pathfinder. Being in California at the out- 
break of the war against Mexico, he acted promptly 
with the small force under his command, and held 
that territory for the United States after several 
skirmishes. These various expeditions were ex- 
ceedingly picturesque, and filled with wilderness 
adventures. Published in all details, they quickly 
appealed to the imagination of the people and made 
Fremont a popular hero, nearly landing him in the 
presidential chair. 

The Sources of the Missouri and the Columbia 

On his first journey, in 1842, his party, number- 
ing twenty-eight, was composed largely of French 
voyageurs, with Kit Carson as guide. This famous 
borderman had run away from home at fifteen to 
join one of the early caravans to Santa Fe, and 
passed all the remainder of his life on the plains 
and in the mountains. His adventures among In- 
dians and wild beasts would fill volumes, and his 
experience well fitted him for the position he now 
assumed. The party, excellently equipped, pro- 
ceeded up the Missouri as far as Chouteau's trading- 
house, four hundred miles above St. Louis. Here, 
on June 10 they started out across the prairies. The 
journey was enlivened by numerous bufifalo hunts, 
and several councils vv^ith Indian tribes. After thirty 
days' travel the company reached Saint Vrain's 

[154] 



EARLY ARMY SERVICE 

Fort on the South Fork of the Platte. Four days 
later they were on the Laramie River. The two 
months passed by the party in the neighborhood of 
South Pass included an ascent of that high ridge 
since known as Fremont's Peak, and a brief explora- 
tion of the sources of the Missouri and Columbia 
Rivers. The explorers then returned homeward, 
arriving at St. Louis in October. 

Fremont's Journey to Oregon by the South Pass 

Fremont's second expedition occurred in the 
years 1843-44, taking him to Oregon and Califor- 
nia; in results it was by far the most important of 
all his journeys. It was also filled with adventure 
and hardship. He took with him thirty-nine men, 
leaving the little town of Kansas, on the Missouri, 
May 29. The route lay up the valley of the Kan- 
sas to the head-waters of the Arkansas, where Fre- 
mont hoped to discover some practicable opening 
through the range. Not successful in this quest, the 
party journeyed northward along the foot-hills, and 
finally crossed the mountains by way of South Pass. 
While on the Plains they saw many large emigrant 
trains slowly toiling toward Oregon. 

The third expedition, undertaken in the Fall of 
1845, had for its object the discovery of a new route 
tow^ard the Columbia country. But upon his 
arrival at the Pacific coast the war with Mexico 
suddenly disarranged his further plans of explora- 
tion, and he at once undertook the conquest of 
California. 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

His fourth and last trip was made as an Individ- 
ual, and after he had resigned from the army. It 
was a disastrous adventure, and occurred in the 
Winter of 1848-49. His party left the upper waters 
of the Arkansas under the guidance of old Bill Wil- 
liams, a famous mountaineer. Williams either 
never knew, or through age had forgotten, the coun- 
try to be traversed, and almost from the beginning, 
became lost, the company wandering aimlessly 
about in deep snow and winter storms. Their suf- 
ferings were intense, their situation desperate. Ten 
of his men, one-third of the entire company, died 
from exposure and starvation, before the remnant 
staggered into the safety of the Mexican settlements. 

Other Explorations 

After Fremont's expeditions the people of the 
Eastern States became vitally interested in the open- 
ing up of the West, and the Government at Wash- 
ington was stimulated to undertake new explora- 
tions. These were carried on largely by the War 
Department; but while of very real importance in 
adding to the stock of geographical knowledge re- 
garding this region, they were not extensive, or par- 
ticularly interesting in either incident or adventure. 
The most important of them were under command 
of Captain R. B. Marcy, who thoroughly explored 
the Red and Wichita Rivers, and the country of 
the Comanches, including the Staked Plains. A 
trail westward from Fort Smith was also marked 
by this officer, and was largely used by emigrants. 

[156] 



EARLY ARMY SERVICE 

Mormon Atrocities 

While the Plains were yet uninhabited and un- 
sought by white settlers, the army was twice called 
upon to march across them in considerable force, to 
enforce law and wage war. The first occasion was 
in the struggle against Mexico ; the second was the 
Mormon campaign, beginning in 1857. Already, 
and for years, the well-beaten trails leading toward 
the Rockies and the far-ofif Pacific were black with 
the wagons of emigrants and gold-seekers. It is 
impossible to estimate their number, or to say how 
many adherents of the Mormon Church were by this 
time gathered in and about Salt Lake. We only 
know that the Mormon population had increased so 
rapidly in ten years that their strength had made 
the Church officials arrogant, and, probably under 
their orders, the ignorant followers had been guilty 
of many atrocities. Emigrant trains were attacked 
and robbed ; even murder had been committed by 
adherents of the Church, disguised as Indians, with 
seemingly no fear of punishment, the Utah authori- 
ties openly defying the Government at Washington 
to attempt arrests. To punish these people and 
bring them to a realization of the necessity of obe- 
dience to law, an army expedition was organized 
at Fort Leavenworth in the Summer of 1857. It 
was splendidly equipped, and started overland with 
immense trains of supplies. The troops taking part 
in the march were the Fifth and Tenth Infantry, 
with two batteries of Light Artillery. Owing to 

[157] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the Free-soil troubles then raging in Kansas, the 
Second Dragoons, detailed for the march, were 
halted in that Territory, and the expedition went 
forward without cavalry. Colonel Alexander was 
in command, and conducted the march across the 
Plains, but was later superseded by Colonel Albert 
Sidney Johnston, who joined the column with a de- 
tachment of horsemen on November 3, thirty-five 
miles from Fort Bridger. 

Campaign against the Mormons 

The main incidents of this campaign, and its 
sufferings, occurred in the mountainous country, 
but may be briefly summarized. Annoyed in ev- 
ery possible way by Mormon militia, Colonel Alex- 
ander's small command of infantrymen were in a 
desperate plight, when Colonel Johnston came up 
and assumed control. It was now so late in the sea- 
son, the ground covered with snow and the animals 
starving, the officers determined to go into winter 
camp at Fort Bridger. Short as the distance was, 
they were fifteen days marching those thirty-five 
miles. The weather was bitter, many of the men 
being badly frost-bitten. In one regiment of cav- 
alry fifty-seven head of horses and mules perished 
of cold in one encampment on the Sweetwater. In 
the camp at Black Fork five hundred animals were 
frozen to death in one night. A day's march barely 
achieved two miles. At Bridger they found noth- 
ing but smoke-blackened walls, the Mormons 
having burned the buildings. Nevertheless the 

[158] 




EARLY STREET SCENE IN SALT LAKE CITY 




THE CABIN HOME OF A MORMON FAMILY 



SCENES PICTURING THE SETTLEMENT OF UTAH BY 
THE MORMONS 



EARLY ARMY SERVICE 

troops camped there, making every possible use of 
the ruins, and living at first on slaughtered oxen. 
It was a winter of great sujfifering; but men and offi- 
cers toiled incessantly, and when spring opened, the 
command was in good condition to take the field. 
Two expeditions in search of supplies travelled to 
Oregon and New Mexico. They were desperate 
ventures, and the soldiers composing them suffered 
greatly, but were successful in their quest. Captain 
Marcy, in command of the New Mexican expedi- 
tion, returned by way of the Plains, skirting the 
eastern base of the mountains. As spring ap- 
proached, Brigham Young, realizing the useless- 
ness of prolonging resistance, permitted the troops 
to advance to Salt Lake without subjecting them to 
further molestation. Here the newly appointed 
Governor, Cummings, at once took charge, and the 
military campaign ended without bloodshed. Noth- 
ing was done in punishment of Mormon atrocities, 
but henceforward Utah came under the direct con- 
trol of the United States. 

Forts Built to Control the Indians 

From 1848 to i860 the Indians of the Great 
Plains were more or less hostile and troublesome, 
although not openly upon the warpath. For their 
better control, and hoping thus to safeguard the 
constantly passing emigrant trains, army posts were 
established at various points in the prairie wilder- 
ness. These were at first very primitive, designed 
for merely temporary purposes, and seldom garri- 

[159] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

soned by more than a company of infantry or a troop 
of horse. Those particularly worthy of mention 
were Forts Pierre and Berthold, on the Missouri, in 
what is now the Dakotas; Fort Kearney, at Grand 
Island on the Platte; Fort Laramie, on the North 
Fork of the same stream; Fort Atkinson, near the 
great bend of the Arkansas; Fort Union, in eastern 
New Mexico; Fort Washita, near the confluence 
of the Washita with the Red in northern Texas; 
Fort Belknap, on the upper Brazos; Fort Chad- 
bourne, near the eastern limits of the Staked Plains; 
and Fort Lancaster, on the lower Pecos. The serv- 
ice at these isolated posts, at times severed from 
all communication, and surrounded by hostile sav- 
ages, was most severe and trying. All the posts 
had their tales of soldier heroism and sacrifice, for 
the region round about each was a scene of almost 
constant skirmishing. During the later years of this 
occupancy the wide Plains were almost continually 
scouted over by small detachments of troops, pass- 
ing from post to post, ever seeking to keep control 
over the wandering tribes, and protect the onflowing 
army of emigrants. 

Escorts for Emigrant Trains 

Perhaps the most tiresome, yet necessary service 
given those regulars serving on the Plains during 
this period was that of guarding emigrant or 
trading caravans. This was almost incessantly kept 
up for many years, even to the time of building the 
Pacific Railroad. Its story would reveal many a 

[1 60] 



EARLY ARMY SERVICE 

forgotten fight, many a heroic adventure. This es- 
cort duty was always distasteful, but that with a 
" bull " or ox-train was the worst. Colonel For- 
syth writes thus of it from the bitterness of his own 
experience: 

"Oh, the tedium of it all! The starting twice a day in the 
small hours of both meridians : the dismal journey of from seven 
to twelve miles in a trip of one or two hundred miles and re- 
turn. The train, numbering from twenty to fifty wagons, rolled 
out in the matutinal twilight to an accompaniment of cracking 
whips, of yells and teamsters' oaths, the officer commanding the 
escort, bored and sleepy, riding a few yards ahead of the leading 
wagon, the escort scattered about where it could do the most 
good in the event of sudden need. At the end of the first mile 
up gallops a wagon master. 'Leftenant,' he says, 'Hunk Hansen 
has shed a tire, and we'll have to put it back.' Everything stops, 
for it will not do to separate the train. The tire is put on and 
a fresh start made. Half an hour later a wagon master is at the 
escort commander's side again. 'That idiot Doby Dave,' he ex- 
claims, 'never told me he had a split yoke before we left camp, 
and now it 's come apart, blast him! and I've got to go through 
the wagons or band the yoke.' 'Which can you do more quick- 
ly?' asks the lieutenant patiently. 'Band her.' 'Do it, then.' 
Another halt, another half hour or hour lost, and so it goes 
through the day, day after day, in rain and shine, always in heat, 
for freighting is possible only when the grass is green. And 
there is ever a steady strain of responsibility on the officer. He 
well knows that he is followed and watched, and should he be 
caught napping he will surely have to pay the penalty, for the 
stock is a prize that the Indians will risk much to secure. They 
know his route, the length of time he will be on the road, and 
his destination, and he must act accordingly. The men, nat- 
urally enough, become weary of the slow progress, the short 
halts, and the nightly hard guard duty. They do not care to 
affiliate with the teamsters, and get tired of each other, and, in 
fact, it is a dreary business all around. As the train is groan- 
ing and creaking its slow way over a bit of rolling country, a 

[i6i] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

cry of 'Indians, Indians!' suddenly comes from the flankers, and 
a band of Indians dash rapidly forward out of a hollow toward 
the wagons, yelling and firing as they advance. The soldiers 
spring quickly to their stations and promptly return the fire, and 
the drivers instantly begin to form a park by turning their 
teams. So the Indians, seeing that the attempted stampede is a 
failure, fire a parting volley and disappear. They had hoped to 
surprise the train and run off some of the cattle. A day or two 
later an attempt will be made to wile away the herd, and the 
guard, expecting such an effort, will frustrate it. However, the 
Indians were not always unsuccessful ; wagon trains were be- 
reft by them of every animal they possessed, and the mortified 
losers compelled to wait ingloriously for relief to arrive from 
some adjacent post or else go after it on foot." 

A March of Troops Across the Plains 

This same interesting writer on frontier army 
life thus graphically describes a scene most com- 
mon during all this period, the day's march of a 
column of troops across the Plains: 

"During the first hour, or until the sun is well up, the 
command plods along slowly, the men's legs are not limbered up, 
and sleep still hovers about their eyelids ; but gradually a hum of 
talk and laughter rises, and in time every one strikes his regular 
pace, the company officers get together at the head of their or- 
ganizations, and the distance between the column and the wagon 
train which followed it out of camp increases. During the ten- 
minute halts in each hour, the men skylark and everything is 
cheerful and merry. Later, as the total of miles travelled grows 
large, the hum and buzz dies down ; during the halts the men 
lie on their backs instead of skylarking; and when the march is 
resumed it takes a minute or two to fall into the regular gait, 
and the head of the wagon train, out of sight a little while ago, 
is seen to draw steadily nearer. The battalion slowly drags itself 
to the top of a rise as the head of the column gains it, and the 
music boys see on the plain far ahead a dark line, which they 
know to be bushes or trees, and it shows the next camp ground, 

[162] 



EARLY ARMY SERVICE 

for they mark the location of water. A thrill runs through the 
command. The talk begins again, the feet grow lighter, and the 
last two or three miles are dashed off at a rattling pace. Camp 
is reached, and it is about twelve o'clock. The cavalry, which 
left the last camp half an hour after the infantry, has, by passing 
it on the way, arrived an hour earlier, and is already comfortably 
settled for the night. 

"Sometimes at night, when the weather was clear and not 
overcold, the men would lie wide awake upon their backs for 
hours at a stretch, looking straight up at the wonderful beauty 
of the heavens, talking to each other in low tones, and enjoying 
to their hearts' content the awe-inspiring sight of a starlight 
night far out on the plains, where the air is so pure that the 
stars seem to shine with a lustre unknown to those of mountains 
and cities, and to swing lower in the blue vault of heaven than 
anywhere else. It is such hours as these that help to lend the 
nameless fascination to a soldier's life on the Plains, that never 
entirely leaves him, and often stirs his blood even years after he 
has left the service and is a gray-haired man with a growing 
family around him; that safely anchors him to a civil life." 



[163] 



CHAPTER III 
DURING THE WAR WITH MEXICO 

General Kearney Invades Mexico 

IN APRIL, 1846, Mexico declared war against 
the United States, and a month later the Presi- 
dent called into the field 50,000 volunteers. General 
Kearney was given command of the army intended 
for action in the West, and this force was di- 
vided into three separate commands. The first, 
led by himself, was destined to the Pacific coast; a 
thousand volunteers, under Colonel Doniphan were 
to descend upon Chihuahua; while the third divi- 
sion, commanded by Sterling Price, was expected to 
garrison Santa Fe, and retain control of New 
Mexico. 

In this connection, Inman records an interesting 
story of the Plains, as follows: 

"Early in the Spring of 1846, before ft was known, or even 
conjectured, that a state of war would be declared, a caravan 
of twenty-nine traders, on their way from Independence to Santa 
Fe, beheld, just after a storm, and a little before sunset, a per- 
fect, distinct image of the Bird of Liberty, the American eagle, 
on the disc of the sun. When they saw it, they simultaneously 
and almost involuntarily exclaimed that in less than twelve 
months the Eagle of Liberty would spread his broad plumes over 
the Plains of the West, and that the flag of our country would 
wave over the cities of New Mexico and Chihuahua." 

The value of this vision, and the truth of its ful- 
filment, can be left to the judgment of the reader. 

[164] 



DURING THE WAR WITH MEXICO 

General Kearney's army moved out onto the 
prairie from Fort Leavenworth, in detached col- 
umns, during the Summer of 1846, and took up its 
long march through the v^ilderness. It consisted of 
two batteries of Artillery, three squadrons First U. 
S. Dragoons, the First Regiment of Missouri Cav- 
alry, two companies of Infantry, and a detachment 
of Topographical Engineers. By August this force 
was concentrated in camp on the old Santa Fe 
Trail, about nine miles below Bent's Fort on the 
Arkansas. The incidents and adventures of this 
march over the Plains have been recorded in detail 
by the commandant of the Engineers, Lieutenant 
W. H. Emory, and John T. Hughes of the Mis- 
souri Cavalry. I use their report freely as quoted 
by Inman. 

At the first planning of this expedition it was 
gravely questioned by officials whether so large a 
body of troops could be marched such a distance 
over an uninhabited waste, having no base of sup- 
plies, and totally severed from all possibility of re- 
inforcement. It was considered an experiment, and 
a dangerous one, yet an immense amount of pro- 
visions was carried in huge wagons, carefully 
guarded, and beef cattle were driven the entire dis- 
tance. These subsisted entirely by grazing on the 
nutritious buffalo grass bordering the trail. At 
night it was the custom to confine them in a corral 
formed by the wagons, although occasionally they 
were tethered to an iron picket-pin driven fifteen 
inches into the hard ground. At the outset of the 

[165] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

march the horses made considerable trouble. Many 
of them being only half broken and unused to mili- 
tary display, the fluttering flags, the rumbling of 
caissons, the pealing trumpets, and the rattling 
sabres proved too much for their nerves, and there 
were numerous wild stampedes, the frightened ani- 
mals scampering pell-mell across the prairie. Rider 
and arms left behind, the excited troop horse en- 
joyed to the full his liberty. No fatal accidents oc- 
curred, however, and the straying horses were all 
eventually recovered. 

The troops marched in separate bodies. We 
have record of such a detachment going into camp 
on the 9th of July, in what is now McPherson 
County, Kansas, where the trail crossed the Little 
Arkansas. The mosquitoes, gnats, and black flies 
were so fierce as to drive men and horses frantic. 
Lieutenant-colonel Rufif of the Missouri volunteers 
was in command, and his men were very short of 
provisions. Knowing a loaded train was ahead 
near Pawnee Fork, he had sent a scout forward to 
halt it until he could come up. While he waited 
for this scout to return, word reached him that Don- 
iphan's and Kearney's men, just behind him, were 
also in a starving condition. To make sure of early 
relief he sent other couriers hastily forward to over- 
haul the wagon train, and one of them, attempting 
to ford the fork of the Pawnee, was drowned. His 
body was recovered and given a military burial. 
This was the first loss that occurred to the expedi- 
tion on the Plains. Hughes writes thus of the scene 

[166] 



DURING THE WAR WITH MEXICO 

presenting itself as the soldiers approached the 
river. Comparing its appearance then with its 
appearance now, the great change wrought by 
settlement can be clearly realized. 

"In approaching the Arkansas, a landscape of the most im- 
posing and picturesque nature makes its appearance. While the 
green, glossy undulations of the prairie to the right seem to 
spread out in infinite succession, like waves subsiding after a 
storm, and covered with herds of gambolling buffalo, on the 
left, towering to a height of seventy-five to a hundred feet, rise 
the sun-gilt summits of the sand hills, along the base of which 
winds the broad, majestic river, bespecked with verdant isles, 
thickly beset with cottonwood timber, the sand hills resembling 
heaps of driven snow." 

Crossing the Pawnee 

It was on July 15 that these separate detach- 
ments formed junction at Pawnee Fork, within the 
limits of what is now the city of Earned, Kansas. 
The waters of the stream were so high that fording 
was impossible, and the soldiers were immediately 
employed in cutting down cottonwoods and build- 
ing a rude bridge. Over the tree trunks the army 
passed safe to the other shore, bearing in their arms 
the sick, and all the equipments of the camp. The 
horses were compelled to swim, while the empty 
wagons were floated across, and hauled up the slip- 
pery bank by tugging soldiers. This required the 
incessant labor of two days; and then the little col- 
umn pressed resolutely forward, the infantry plod- 
ding along beside the cavalry, although the march- 
ing feet became terribly blistered, marking their 
passage with blood. Two days later, somewhere 

[167I 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

along the Arkansas, Major Howard, an officer who 
had been sent forward to Santa Fe to learn the situ- 
ation, rejoined them. His report was that the com- 
mon people of New Mexico favored the conditions 
of peace proposed by Kearney, but that the officials 
were hostile and making active preparations to re- 
sist invasion. Two thousand three hundred men, 
he said, were already under arms in Santa Fe, while 
another large force was being rapidly organized at 
Taos. The little army of Americans received this 
startling news with gallant cheers, and pushed for- 
ward with new vigor, eagerly hoping for a fight. 

On Mexican Soil 

The Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas was 
reached on the twentieth. It was a day of adven- 
ture. During the last thirty miles the column had 
been in the midst of great herds of bufifalo. Sud- 
denly a bunch of about four hundred swept up from 
out the valley, and charged headlong through the 
marching ranks. Instantly all was turmoil and con- 
fusion, but the troops rallied, made a counter- 
charge, using guns, pistols, even drawn sabres, kill- 
ing many of the animals, and driving the remainder 
helter-skelter over the Plains. On the way up the 
river a few Mexican prisoners were taken, but sub- 
sequently released, and, on the twenty-ninth, the 
soldiers finally crossed the Arkansas and made 
their first camp on Mexican soil about eight miles 
below Bent's Fort. Here they established strong 
guard lines in protection against both Mexicans 

[i68] 



DURING THE WAR WITH MEXICO 

and Comanches. But they had an unexpected en- 
emy to cope with. During the night prowling 
wolves stampeded the animals, and more than a 
thousand horses broke away from their guards and 
dashed madly over the prairie, frightened yet rnore 
by dangling lariats and pounding picket-pins. Many 
were followed for thirty to fifty miles before they 
were recaptured, and nearly a hundred were never 
recovered. While at this camp several chiefs of 
the Arapahoes appeared, and were hospitably en- 
tertained. They were especially impressed by the 
cannon. 

In preparation for a general advance, twenty 
men, under Lieutenant de Courcy, were sent for- 
ward to scout in the direction of Taos. While on 
this trip the little party had an unusual experience 
with the obstinacy of the army mule, since related 
by the commander. He says: 

" We took three pack-mules laden with provisions, and, as 
we did not expect to be long absent, the men took no extra 
clothing. Three da3^s after we left the column our mules fell 
down, and neither gentle means, nor the points of our sabres had 
the least effect in inducing them to rise. Their term of service 
with Uncle Sam was out. ' What 's to be done? ' said the ser- 
geant. ' Dismount,' said I. ' Off with your shirts and drawers, 
men! tie up the sleeves and legs, and each man bag one twenti- 
eth part of the flour.' Having done this, the bacon was distrib- 
uted to the men also, and tied to the cruppers of their saddles. 
Thus loaded we pushed on, without the slightest fear of our 
provision train being cut off." 

A Bloodless Victory at Las Vegas 

The little army, with flags flying and everything 

in military array, began its bold advance into the 

[169] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

enemy's country on the second of August. While it 
was passing Bent's Fort, the occupants ran up a 
large American flag, and the flat tops of the 
houses were densely crowded with interested spec- 
tators. Among ihem were many Mexican girls and 
Indian squaws. The troops advanced steadily with- 
out alarm until they approached the Mexican town 
of Las Vegas. Here scouts reported the enemy as 
being strongly entrenched in a mountain pass a few 
miles beyond the village, where they proposed giv- 
ing battle. The soldiers were at once thrown into 
battle line and hurried forward, the dragoons and 
St. Louis mounted volunteers in the lead. Cart- 
ridges were distributed, the cannon swabbed and 
rigged, the port fires set burning, and every rifle 
loaded. The men were eager for the clash of arms. 
Yet all these preparations were in vain. Las 
Vegas was entered without the firing of a shot, and 
the officials of the village took oath of allegiance to 
the United States, swearing upon the Cross instead 
of the Bible. Hardly delaying long enough for this 
simple ceremony the eager soldiery swept straight 
on toward that canyon where they yet hoped for the 
grapple of arms. August i6, on the Pecos River, 
near the village of San Jose, three Mexican spies 
were captured. The most important of these, a son 
of General Salezar, was held prisoner, but the others 
were released. It was learned later that these thor- 
oughly frightened Mexicans had reported to their 
own people that the invading force was five thou- 
sand strong, with an immense number of cannon. 

[170] 



DURING THE WAR WITH MEXICO 

Flight of the Mexicans from Apache Canyon 

Armijo, in command of the Mexican defenders, 
had by this time assembled seven thousand troops, 
most of them well armed, and occupied a strong po- 
sition in Apache Canyon. But this news of the num- 
bers of the invaders was too much for him and his 
men, although the day previous he had written a 
defiant note to General Kearney offering battle. It 
was about noon when the Americans reached the 
mouth of the canyon, every man in the ranks eager 
to try the mettle of the Mexicans. Emory thus de- 
scribes the scene: 

"The sun shone with dazzling brightness; the guidons and 
colors of each squadron, regiment, and battalion were for the 
first time unfurled. The drooping horses seemed to take cour- 
age from the gay array. The trumpeters sounded 'to horse' with 
spirit, and the hills multiplied and reechoed the call. All wore 
the aspect of a gala day. About the middle of the day's march 
the two Pueblo Indians, previously sent to sound the chief men 
of that formidable tribe, were seen in the distance at full speed, 
with arms and legs both thumping the sides of their mules at 
every stride. Something was now surely in the wind. The 
smaller and foremost of the two dashed up to the general, his 
face radiant with joy, and exclaimed: 'They are in the canyon, 
my brave ; pluck up your courage and push them out.' " 

But they were not there; already the boasting 
Mexican army had faded away; rent by quarrels 
and fear, and bearing their commander with them, 
all had fled to the mountains for safety. Forbes 
adds: 

"As we approached the ancient town of Pecos, a large fat 
fellow, mounted on a mule, came toward us at full speed, and, 
extending his hand to the general, congratulated him on the ar- 

[171] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

rival of himself and army. He said, with a roar of laughter, 
'Armijo and his troops have gone to hell, and the canyon is all 
clear.' " 

Thus easily was New Mexico won without 
bloodshed, and the centuries-long Spanish influence 
on the Great Plains swept away forever. The waves 
of war passed on to the south and west beyond the 
limits of this region whose story is being now con- 
sidered. With Doniplan's hardships and sufferings 
in the mountains, and Kearney's wonderful march 
across Arizona to California, we have nothing to 
do. When Armijo fled from the country it became 
the undisputed property of the United States, and 
the conquest of New Mexico was practically ended. 



[172] 



CHAPTER IV 

THE REIGN OF THE PRAIRIE SCHOONER 

Increase of Santa Fe Trade 

THE close of the Mexican war brought with it 
a new era to the Plains. The reign of the 
prairie schooner then began in earnest. Almost im- 
mediately the freight business between Missouri 
River points and Santa Fe increased to a wonderful 
degree. Where before a yearly caravan was deemed 
sufficient for the trade, from now on, during the 
season of safe travel, the trail was seldom vacant of 
slow-toiling wagons. Wages for teamsters rose 
steadily, although prices for transportation had a 
marked tendency downward because of increasing 
competition. However, profits were sufficient, even 
taking into account the growing hostility of the In- 
dian tribes, and the consequent danger of the pas- 
sage. The usual price charged for thus hauling 
freight to Santa Fe was ten dollars a hundred 
pounds, each wagon earning from five hundred to 
six hundred dollars every trip, the average time con- 
sumed being eighty or ninety days. About this time 
the eastern terminus of the trade shifted to a con- 
siderable degree from Independence to Westport, 
and Kansas City began her steady advance toward 
supremacy. 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

The Rush of Gold-Seekers over the Oregon Trail 

During this period the Oregon Trail was not 
neglected, but was being constantly traversed by 
emigrant trains bound for the Columbia River 
country of California. But by the Spring of 1849, 
when the gold rush began, this slender current be- 
came suddenly transformed into a mighty torrent. 
In all the chronicles of men there is nothing to com- 
pare with the stream of humanity which then began 
flowing across an unconquered wilderness. No one 
may even guess at the numbers involved. There 
are no statistics to turn to. It has been roughly es- 
timated that in that first year alone forty-two thou- 
sand people crossed the Plains. Lummis, in a 
remarkable article on Pioneer Transportation, in 
McClure's Magazine, from whom I quote freely in 
this chapter, pictures this exodus in these powerful 
words : 

" In its pathless distance, its inevitable hardships, and its fre- 
quent savage perils, reckoned with the character of the men, 
women, and children concerned, it stands alone. The era was 
one of national hard times ; and not only the professional failures, 
but ministers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, and farmers, with 
their families, caught the new yellow fever, and betook them- 
selves to a journey fifty times as long and hard as the average 
of them had ever taken before. Powder, lead, food-stufifs, house- 
hold goods, wives, sisters, mothers, and babies rode in the Osna- 
burg-sheeted prairie schooners, or whatsoever wheeled convey- 
ance the emigrant could secure, up from ancient top-buggies 
to new Conestogas; while the men rode their horses or mules, 
or trudged beside the caravans. A historic party of five French- 
men pushed a hand-wagon from the Missouri to the Coast; and 
one man trundled his possessions in a wheelbarrow. At its best, 
it was an itinerary untranslatable to the present generation; at 

[174] 



REIGN OF THE PRAIRIE SCHOONER 

its worst, with Indian massacres, thirst, snows, tenderfootedness, 
and disease, it was one of the ghastliest highways in history. 
The worst chapter of cannibalism in our national record was 
that of the Donner Party, snowed in from November to March, 
1849-50 in the Sierra Nevada. In the fifties the Asiatic cholera 
crawled in upon the Plains, and like a gray wolf followed the 
wagon-trains from the River to the Rockies. In the height of 
the migration, from four thousand to five thousand immigrants 
died of this pestilence; and if there was a half-mile which the 
Indians had failed to punctuate with a grave, the cholera took 
care to remedy the omission. The two-thousand-mile trip was 
a matter of four months when least, and of six with bad luck. 
Children were born, and people died ; worried greenhorns quar- 
relled and killed one another — and the train straggled on. Up 
on the bead-waters of the Platte one probably could find, even 
now, the crumbling remnants of a little cottonwood scaffold, 
and of her rocking chair, which was left upon it to mark the 
grave of a mother who gave up her life there to the birth of a 
child later not unknown in the history of California. On the 
southern route — through New Mexico and Arizona — Commis- 
sioner Bartlett took cognizance of one hundred deserted wagons. 
Already in the summer of 1849, 1,500 wagons, bound for ' Cali- 
forny,' crossed the Missouri at St. Joe alone in six weeks. In 
.1850, Kirkpatrick counted 459 west-bound teams in nine miles." 

Freight Traffic to the Pacific in the Sixties 

In the rear of this immense emigrant trafRc 
there immediately sprang up a vast freighting in- 
terest, which at this day seems almost incredible. 
We can but roughly estimate its importance. We 
know this, that during the sixties five hundred heav- 
ily laden wagons frequently passed Fort Kearney 
in a single day. In 1865, within six weeks, six thou- 
sand wagons filled with freight rolled past that iso- 
lated post on the Overland Trail. Frank A. Root, 
about that time an express messenger, who later 

[175] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

published an interesting volume, "The Overland 
Stage to California," records that in a single day's 
ride between Fort Kearney and old Julesburg, he 
counted 888 west-bound wagons, drawn by 10,650 
oxen, horses, and mules. In illustrating the slow- 
ness of this mode of travel. Root, starting one day 
from Atchison on his stage, spoke to a bull-whacker 
who was just pulling out. Root went through to 
Denver, and doubled back, meeting his friend on 
the road. This experience was repeated again and 
again, the express messenger seeing the bull- 
whacker for the last time as he rolled into Denver. 
Root had accomplished five single trips, having cov- 
ered 3,265 miles, with eighteen days' lay over, while 
the freighter had wheeled slowly 653 miles. 

Freighting across the Plains attained to its 
greatest magnitude during and for a short time 
after the Civil War, from 1863 to 1866, but during 
the entire decade from 1859 to 1869 it was of im- 
mense proportions. The major portion of it was 
carried on along the mainly used trails to Santa Fe 
and California, but the minor trails, soon estab- 
lished, and leading from post to post scattered 
throughout the Indian country, were often trav- 
ersed by freighters in Government employ. In such 
cases small detachments of troops, commonly riding 
in an ambulance drawn by mules, accompanied the 
lumbering wagons as escort. These found many a 
bit of strenuous service to perform in bringing their 
charges safely through. On the long trails, how- 
ever, the hardy wagoners had to rely upon their 

[176] 



REIGN OF THE PRAIRIE SCHOONER 

own ready rifles to assure their passage, and usually 
travelled in long trains, under a rude yet effective 
discipline. It was sure to be a long, tedious trip, 
but usually contained sufficient incident to relieve 
the dull routine. During all the later years the 
Indian tribes were restless and dangerous, seldom 
venturing on open attack, but always seeking oppor- 
tunity to run off stock, or dash down upon a 
loitering wagon, or a straying hunter. This hostility 
of the savages can be traced back to the reckless bar- 
barism of the teamsters themselves. The Santa Fe 
Trail became a trail of blood, yet it was peaceful 
enough until wanton shooting of Indians by whites 
compelled the tribes to retaliate. In the earliest 
days an unarmed man could have walked in safety 
the entire distance. In the height of the freighting 
enterprise oxen were more commonly used than any 
other animals. They made from twelve to fifteen 
miles a day with loaded wagons, and averaged 
twenty miles when returning light. With good care 
oxen covered two thousand miles during the usual 
season of Plains travel, extending from April to 
November. 

The Teamster and the Indian 

As well illustrating the constant danger hover- 
ing over careless stragglers, a reminiscence related 
by General Forsyth of an incident that occurred 
during the construction of the Kansas Pacific Rail- 
road, is apropos. It is thus related in "The Story 
of the Soldier": 

"On one occasion, near the Smoky Hill River in Colorado, 
[177] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

five or six of the teamsters during nooning hour on a hot mid- 
summer day, despite positive orders to the contrary, strayed over 
toward the river bank, a good quarter of a mile away, and 
dropped down in the shade of a solitary cottonwood tree that 
grew there. In a few moments a well-mounted war party of 
eight or ten Cheyennes, who were lying concealed in the river 
bottom just under a cut bank on this side of the river, suddenly 
dashed out and made for them. But one of the party had any 
arms, and he had only a revolver. In a moment the Indians 
were upon them, and the men, running for their lives, started 
toward the railroad, while the soldiers, grasping their rifles, ran 
to their rescue, opening fire on the Indians as they ran. Two 
of the teamsters were shot down and scalped, but the man with 
the revolver kept his head, and by threatening the nearest war- 
riors caused them to sheer off as they closed on him, and the 
soldiers getting within range soon made it so hot for them that 
they fled. One of the men, however, a long-legged Missourian 
teamster, had been headed oflE on his way to the track by an en- 
terprising warrior, who sought to run him down and transfix 
him wath a spear after he had failed to hit him with a rifle shot. 
This teamster happened to have had a new leather-thonged bull 
whip issued to him that day, and having some misgivings as to 
whether he would find it in his wagon on his return from his 
dinner, had, fortunately for himself, taken it with him when 
he and his companions sought their noon siesta under the cotton- 
wood tree. Running for dear life, he unconsciously held the 
whip in his hand, and just as the Indian was upon him, and 
about to transfix him by hurling his spear, he glanced over his 
shoulder and almost instinctively made a backward cut with his 
whip at the Indian's pony, the lash striking the animal full In 
the face. The horse swerved so suddenly as to divert the war- 
rior's aim, and, though he hurled the missile, the spear missed 
its mark, and as the pony dashed close by him our teamster saw 
his only chance. 

"Grasping the tail of the now frightened and fleeing ani- 
mal, he began a hail of strokes on the bare back of the Indian 
that only one who has seen the way in which a Western bull- 
whacker can handle a blacksnake whip can fully appreciate. 
Every stroke drew blood, and the teamster rained down the 
blows unsparingly and savagely. 

[178] 



REIGN OF THE PRAIRIE SCHOONER 

"In vain did the Indian cower to his pony's back, and dig 
his heels into his sides, and lash the animal desperately with his 
quirt, for the teamster held on like grim death as he ran, and 
plied his strokes sw^iftly^ and unerringly, and it was not until he 
was exhausted with running and stumbled over a hillock that 
the Indian's pony broke loose, and, with a parting cut of the 
teamster's whip across his hind legs, tore madly away toward 
the other warriors, who, fearing the aim of the soldiers, and not 
daring to come to his rider's rescue, were galloping wildly 
around just out of rifle range, whooping, laughing, and yelling 
with delight at the absurd plight of the discomfited brave, who, 
it is safe to say, from henceforth, until he had managed to re- 
habilitate himself by some daring deed of blood, would be dubbed 
and held only as a squaw in the Indians' camp. As for our 
long-legged Missouri teamster he was the hero of the hour, and 
deserved to be." 

Immense Traffic at the Outfitting Points 

It has been estimated that while the reign of the 
prairie schooner was at its zenith, the floating pop- 
ulation on the Great Plains amounted to fully 250, 
000. In 1865 more than twenty-one million pounds 
of freight was thus conveyed westward from Atchi- 
son alone, and to transport it 4,917 wagons were re- 
quired, with 6,164 mules, 27,685 oxen, and 1,256 
men. Yet this was but a drop in the bucket as com- 
pared with the traffic at the numerous other outfit- 
ting points along the border. The firms engaged 
in this business were many, and their employees an 
army. From Fort Smith, Independence, Kansas 
City, St. Joseph, Atchison, Council Blufifs, and 
other less known points of departure, the great 
wagon streams swept forth into the Plains, their 
aggregate number beyond any possible estimate of 
to-day. The greatest firm in the trade, that of 

[179] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Russell, Majors, and Waddell, at one time employed 
6,250 huge wagons, and 75,000 oxen. As Lummis 
says: 

"Probably there are not to-day so many oxen working in 
the United States as this one firm used half a century ago. 
This may give some faint idea of the mighty traffic whose wheels 
wrinkled the face of the Far West, and the smoke of whose 
dusty torments 'ascended up forever,' and reddened the prairie 
sunsets for a generation." 

The Organization of a Freight Caravan 

For a moment consider the organization of such 
a train end its cost. Usually not less than twenty- 
five wagons travelled together for better protection. 
They were huge, long-geared prairie schooners, 
flaring from the bottom upward, sometimes seven- 
teen feet long, with six feet depth of hold, and a 
capacity of anywhere from five thousand to sixteen 
thousand pounds each. Over all, upheld by stout 
hickory bows was the canvas cover. From six to 
twelve yoke of oxen furnished the propelling 
power, under the inspiration of one or more " bull- 
whackers." The men travelling with such a 
caravan numbered thirty-one — a captain, or wag- 
onmaster, his assistant, a night herder, and the 
"cavayard driver," or in Spanish caballada, who 
had charge of the spare horses, with, at least a 
driver to each wagon. Of the latter those handling 
oxen, or "bull teams" were known as "bull- 
whackers," while the others, devoting their energy 
and profanity to the steering of long-eared "crit- 
ters," were denominated " mule-skinners," and each 
class well deserved its name. The trail was never 

[180] 



REIGN OF THE PRAIRIE SCHOONER 

noted for sentimentality, or mercy to dumb beasts. 
In the last years of prairie freighting, after 1859, 
"trailers" were quite commonly used. The trailer 
was a second, and generally a smaller wagon, chained 
to the one in the lead. The amount of money in- 
vested in such a wagon-train reached a surprising 
figure. The huge Conestoga, Pittsburg, or Penn- 
sylvania wagons cost from eight hundred dollars 
to one thousand five hundred dollars each ; first- 
class mules (and no others could do the work) five 
hundred dollars to one thousand dollars a pair; 
harness for the ten-mule team three hundred dollars 
to six hundred dollars, making a total running from 
$2,600 to $7,100 for each wagon. To this must be 
added salaries, provisions, and incidentals. 

Regular freight caravans as thus constituted, 
and running west from the Missouri River, not 
only greatly stimulated emigration, but did much 
to lower the cost of transportation. In the days of 
the pack-train it was no uncommon thing to pay 
one dollar a pound per one hundred miles, or $20 
a ton per mile. The tariff of the overland 
freighters between Atchison and Denver (620 
miles) is thus given by Lummis: 

Flour gc per lb. Whiskey 1 8c per lb. 

Sugar I3^c per lb. Glass i9/^c per lb. 

Bacon and dry Trunks 25c per lb. 

goods 15c per lb. Furniture 31c per lb. 

Everything went by the pound, and the trip re- 
quired twenty-one days for horses or mules, and 
five weeks for oxen. 

[181] 



CHAPTER V 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE 

The Oregon Trail Used by Trappers and Mormons 

LONG before the first coming of the white man 
ito this magnificent domain of the West, the 
beautiful valley of the Platte had been used as a 
natural pathway leading to the mountains. The 
pioneer trappers and traders soon discovered its 
feasibility and were travelling this route in the ear- 
liest years of the nineteenth century. Pushing on 
still farther toward the setting sun in their eager 
search after furs, these hardy wanderers conquered 
the secrets of the grim ranges beyond, connecting 
the more easily accessible crossings of the moun- 
tains and deserts, until by 1843, there was a well- 
defined, and continuous route of travel, passable even 
for wagons, stretching in unbroken line from the 
Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean at the mouth 
of the Columbia. This later became known widely 
as the Oregon Trail. 

At first its eastern terminus was the mouth of 
the Platte; before serious emigration or settlement 
began, this terminus had shifted southward, but the 
entire Platte Valley was always utilized to a consid- 
erable extent. In 1842 Lieutenant Fremont, on his 
first exploring expedition, travelled up the valley 
of the Blue, thus opening a practical and easy trail 
from the outfitting stations of western Missouri to 

[182] 



THE OVERLAND ROUTE 

Grand Island. The Mormon exodus of 1847 jour- 
neyed the full length of the Platte Valley, but the 
later emigrants to Oregon, as well as the California 
gold-seekers, preferred the shorter route across the 
prairies of Kansas and Nebraska. The Platte Valley 
is wide and beautiful, once covered with luxuriant 
grass and dotted with wild flowers. About it in 
those old days stretched a desert of plain and prairie 
awful in its loneliness, and roamed over by treacher- 
ous savages. The river itself was broad but shal- 
low, at some seasons almost disappearing in the 
sand. Three-quarters of a century ago Washington 
Irving spoke of it as — 

"the most magnificent and most useless of streams. Abstraction 
made of its defects, nothing can be more pleasing than the per- 
spective which it presents to the eye. Its islands have the ap- 
pearance of a labyrinth of groves floating on the waters. Their 
extraordinary position gives an air of youth and loveliness to the 
whole scene. If to this be added the undulations of the river, 
the waving of the verdure, the alternations of light and shade, 
the succession of these islands varying in form and beauty, and 
the purity of the atmosphere, some idea may be formed of the 
pleasing sensations which the traveller experiences on beholding 
a scene that seems to have started fresh from the hands of the 
Creator." 

Difficulty of Tracing the Road Now 

Any tracing of the old Oregon, or Overland 
Trail, can be only approximate, owing to the many 
changes wrought by settlement. Most of the old 
road has long since been ploughed up, and, although 
many names of places famous in the olden days yet 
survive, they are rarely located in the original spots. 
Yet once it was all plain enough, for as the inflow 

[183] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

of emigration rapidly increased, the road became 
so deeply worn that frequently new ones were found 
necessary, and thus, from one cause and another, 
there were often parallel lines for considerable dis- 
tances. Sometimes only a few feet separated the 
trails, and again they swerved away from each other 
for several miles. It was a wonderful highway, 
perhaps the most remarkable in history. Every mile 
of it had been a scene of hardship and suffering, of 
battle and sudden death, of high purpose and stern 
determination. Nowhere else in the world — not 
even in Siberia — was there ever so long a highway 
across which population and traffic moved in con- 
tinuous journey from one end to the other. In all 
that immense distance the earlier travellers beheld 
no evidence of civilized habitation between Inde- 
pendence and Fort Vancouver, excepting four small 
trading-posts. For two thousand miles it stretched 
away through an utter wilderness; as Chittenden 
says, " No transit ever located a foot of it, no level 
established its grades, no engineer sought out the 
fords, built any bridges, or surveyed the mountain 
passes." Yet Father De Smet, who had seen all 
Europe, pronounced it one of the finest highways 
in the world. 

Nevertheless it was not always so. It was not 
when heavy rains transformed it into a quagmire, 
or when the prairies became dry and parched, — 

**the road filled with stifling dust, the stream beds mere dry ra- 
vines, or carrying only alkaline water which could not be used, 
the game all gone to more hospitable sections, and the summer 

[184] 



THE OVERLAND ROUTE 

sun pouring down its heat with torrid intensity. It was then 
that the trail became a highway of desolation, strewn with 
abandoned property, the skeletons of horses, mules, and oxen, 
and, alas! too often with freshly made mounds and head-boards 
that told the pitiful tale of sufferings too great to be endured. 
If the trail was the scene of romance, adventure, pleasure, and 
excitement, so it was marked in every mile of its course by hu- 
man misery, tragedy, and death." ^ 

To be caught upon the trail during the winter 
months, when blizzards were common, was a most 
desperate and dangerous situation for both man and 
beast. 

The Trail, in many places a hundred feet or 
more wide, running directly across the open Plains, 
presented a most astonishing sight when first 
viewed. The Indians called it the " Great Medicine 
Road of the Whites," and were profoundly im- 
pressed with the vast multitude swarming along it. 
Captain Raynolds, of the Corps of Engineers, U. S. 
Army, came south from the Yellowstone in 1859, 
and struck the Trail near the first ford of the North 
Platte. Never having seen the great road he inno- 
cently asked his guide, Jim Bridger, if there was 
any danger of their crossing the Trail without see- 
ingi it. Bridger's only answer was a look of con- 
temptuous amazement. 

Prominent Points on the Route 

The majority of the Rocky Mountain, Colum- 
bia, and California expeditions started from Inde- 
pendence, Missouri. Leaving that border town the 

* Chittenden. 

[185] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

route followed the old Santa Fe Trail for about two 
days' journey, the last camping-ground being at 
Round or Caravan Grove, thirty-three miles from 
Independence. Eight miles beyond this a rough 
signboard stood pointing to the right; on it were 
the words " Road to Oregon." Never before or 
since has so simple an announcement pointed the 
way to so long and hard a journey. It was at this 
point the two great historic trails of the Plains di- 
verged, and this important junction was a little 
northwest of the present town of Gardner, Kansas. 

Mention need be made only briefly of the more 
prominent points beyond this, usually camping 
spots, which were utilized, a little later, as stations 
for the Overland stages or the Pony Express. The 
first of these was Wakarusa Creek. The ford was 
near where the railroad running south from Law- 
rence now crosses the stream. From this point the 
trail followed the divide between the Wakarusa 
and the Kansas, until it swerved down to the latter 
river at what was then known as Papin's Ferry, be- 
ing about the present location of the city of Topeka. 
The next stop was on Turkey Creek, near the town 
now known as Rossville, the traveller being by this 
time ninety-five miles from Independence. The 
Little Vermilion was attained close to the site of 
the modern Louisville; and the Big, or Black Ver- 
milion, about where the present Bigelow stands. 

One hundred and seventy-four miles from Inde- 
pendence the caravan arrived at the Big Blue. The 
stream was forded near the mouth of the Little 

[1 86] 



THE OVERLAND ROUTE 

Blue, and, eight miles beyond, close to the present 
location of Ballard Falls, a junction was made with 
a trail leading from St. Joseph, about one hundred 
miles distant. From Wythe's Creek, some twenty 
miles farther on, the road ran along the Little Blue, 
finally crossing the Big Sandy near its mouth. This 
is now Nebraska; the trail cut across a bend in the 
Little Blue, and came down close to the banks of 
that stream once more a few miles northwest of 
Hebron, Nebraska. At the head of the Little Blue, 
close to the present village of Leroy, and two hun- 
dred and ninety-six miles from Independence, the 
trail passed into the valley of the Platte. Ap- 
proaching this river the traveller came upon a range 
i)f low hills built up by the winds from the drifting 
sands. They were known on the Trail as the " Coasts 
of the Platte." Here the river was a wide, muddy 
stream, with low banks, flat sand-bars, and pygmy 
islands, straggling through the prairie, and, Inman 
says, "only saved from being impossible to find with 
the naked eye by its sentinel trees standing at long 
distances from each other on either side." The val- 
ley at this point was about seven miles wide, and the 
bed of the river between one and two miles from 
bank to bank. 

The Story of Brady Island 

It was twenty miles below the head of Grand 
Island that the old Trail swept down into the val- 
ley. In early days this island was densely wooded, 
and extended for over sixty miles. From here the 
Trail followed the stream up to the junction of the 

[187] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

North and South Forks. On the way only two 
points of special interest need be referred to — Wood 
and Brady Islands. The first of these was a noted 
landmark and camping spot, and is now a station on 
the Union Pacific. The story of how Brady Island 
became so named is thus told by Rufus Sage, and 
quoted by Chittenden: 

"In 1863 a party of trappers was descending the Platte in 
a boat heavily laden with furs. Brady and a companion had 
quarrelled a good deal en route, and remained very bitter to- 
ward each other. While in camp on the island the other mem- 
bers of the party went out to hunt, leaving Brady and his enemy 
to guard the boat. Upon their return they found Brady dead, 
having been killed, according to his companion's statement, by 
the accidental discharge of his own gun. The party doubted 
the truth of the story, but could not disprove it. They re- 
sumed their journey after burying Brady, but were soon com- 
pelled by the shallow water to take to the shore. Becoming 
destitute of provisions, they separated, and started for the set- 
tlements, each man by himself. The night after the separation 
the suspected murderer was trying to light a fire by the dis- 
charge of his pistol, in order to drive off mosquitoes, when in 
some way he discharged it into his own thigh, inflicting a dan- 
gerous wound. He lay there in agony for six days, when he 
was found by some Pawnee Indians and taken to the lodge of a 
chief. Here he lingered for a few days and died. Before he 
died he confessed to the murder of Brady." 

Points on the Forks of the Platte 

The Lower Ford of the South Platte was 117 
miles from where the Trail first entered the valley 
at Grand Island, and 433 miles from Independence. 
A few of the emigrants and freighters crossed here, 
moving out into a slender tongue of land lying be- 
tween the two Forks, but the majority preferred to 

[188] 



THE OVERLAND ROUTE 

keep on along the main Trail for sixty-three miles 
farther until they came to the Upper Ford of the 
South Platte. Here one trail turned off to the 
southwest, following the stream, and led to Bent's 
Fort on the Arkansas, and thence to Taos and Santa 
Fe. But the main route forded the river and struck 
across to Ash Hollow, where it came out upon the 
banks of the North Fork. The Trail soon began 
passing through a section where huge rocks were 
numerous, formed into fantastic shapes, which re- 
ceived appropriate names from the earlier ex- 
plorers. Among these were Court House Rock, 
555 miles from Independence, and Chimney Rock, 
sixteen miles beyond. This last was in the form 
of a cylindrical tower rising from the top of a coni- 
cal hill. Rufus Sage, in 1841, estimated that the 
hill was 300 feet high and the tower 200. Accord- 
ing to recent observations this estimate is excessive. 
Forty-five miles beyond this point the travellers 
came to another famous landmark known as Scott's 
Blufifs. The origin of the name has been told in the 
chapter upon the early fur-traders. About half-way 
between Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluffs the road 
bore away from the river, but at this point returned 
to it again. 

From the Plains into the Mountains 

Horse Creek, 630 miles from Independence, was 
the next camping place; and, thirty-seven miles be- 
yond, the wagons rolled up to the banks of Laramie 
River, and the wearied emigrants took a resting 

[189] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

spell at Fort John, or later, Fort Laramie, one of 
the old time trading-posts, the first human habita- 
tion to be reached in all that long journey. This 
river received its name from a French-Canadian 
trapper, Joseph Laramie, who lost his life on its 
banks in 1821. Here it was customary for the emi- 
grant trains to go into camp and refit for the harder 
mountain travelling ahead, as the next place where 
they could buy material and find workmen was at 
Fort Bridger, 394 miles distant. Leaving Laramie, 
the emigrants finally departed from the Plains and 
entered upon the mountains, and consequently there 
is no necessity of our following the Trail further. 
But wearisome as the slow journey has already been, 
the pioneers have not as yet half-way completed 
their route to the Pacific at the mouth of the Colum- 
bia. Ahead of them the old Trail stretched across 
mountain and desert for 1,353 miles. 

Sufferings of the Early Emigrants 

And oh, the men, the women, the children who 
completed it! Who starved, suffered, and agonized, 
yet marched ever forward in misery; who faced the 
burning heat, the stifling dust, the dead monotony of 
the Plains, the snows and perils of the mountains, the 
awful desolation of the deserts, yet with undaunted 
hearts pressed sternly on! The long miles, the skulk- 
ing savages, the rude fare, the nights beneath desert 
stars, the days under the burning sun, the never ceas- 
ing toil, the constant sense of danger, only served 
to develop the manhood and womanhood of these 

[190] 




FORT LARAMIE 




FORT BRIDGER 



FRONTIER FORTS 



THE OVERLAND ROUTE 

representatives of an iron age. Before them ever 
was the Star of Hope, and in their heroic hearts 
faith never faltered. They crossed a continent, 
threading a barren wilderness, to win for civiliza- 
tion a region mighty enough for an empire. They 
did their work, and they did it well. And those 
others who died upon the way, who sank beneath 
privation and despair, who fell beneath the Indian 
tomahawk or the grim clutch of disease — their 
lonely graves, unmarked, unknown, strew the route 
of the old Trail from end to end. They were the 
martyrs of progress. As soldiers they fell in the 
front rank. 



[191] 



CHAPTER VI 
THE OVERLAND STAGE LINES 

Monthly Stages to Santa Fe 

FOLLOWING the slow-moving prairie schooner 
there soon came the far swifter stage-coach, 
conveying passengers, express matter, and mail. As 
early as 1849 the first experiment was made in this 
effort to achieve a more rapid passage across the 
Plains, a line of monthly stages being placed be- 
tween Independence and Santa Fe. " The Mis- 
souri Commonwealth," of a few months later, has 
this description: 

"We briefly alluded some days since to the Santa Fe line 
of mail stages which left this city on its first monthly journey 
on the first instant. The stages are got up in elegant style, and 
are each arranged to convey eight passengers. The bodies are 
beautifully painted, and made water-tight, with a view of using 
them as boats in ferrying streams. The team consists of six 
mules to each coach. The mail is guarded by eight men, armed 
as follows: Each man has at his side, fastened in the stage, 
one of Colt's revolving rifles; in a holster below, one of Colt's 
long revolvers; and in his belt a small Colt's revolver, besides a 
hunting knife; so that these eight men are ready in case of at- 
tack to discharge one hundred and thirty-six shots without hav- 
ing to reload. This is equal to a small army, armed as in the 
ancient times; and from the looks of this escort, ready as they 
are either for offensive or defensive warfare with the savages, 
we have no fears for the safety of the mails." 

These monthly stages to Santa Fe started from 
each end of the route at the same time; as the de- 
mand for transportation increased it grew to a 

[192] 



THE OVERLAND STAGE LINES 

weekly service, then to three times each week, and 
in the early sixties, daily stages were estab- 
lished, and continued until the completion of the 
railroad. Those were indeed times of romance and 
adventure, and every mile of the way had its story 
worth the telling. In the days of its greatness each 
coach was capable of transporting eleven passen- 
gers, nine closely stowed inside, three on a seat, and 
two on the outside with the driver. The fare to 
Santa Fe was two hundred and fifty dollars, bag- 
gage allowance being limited to forty pounds. 
Board en route was, of course, included, but that 
was of the simplest, being usually bacon, hardtack, 
and cofifee, with beans occasionally as a luxury. 
Every trip was certain to result in some interesting 
incident; sometimes, and not infrequently, an In- 
dian raid, or perhaps a stampede of the mules, or a 
serious breakdown. When such happenings failed 
to materialize there was often the playfulness of 
drunken drivers to be reckoned with, and the pos- 
sibility of an upset while travelling at full speed. 

When everything went well, the trip required 
about two weeks of constant travel. The first night 
and day in a crowded coach were most fatiguing, 
but after that the intense weariness appeared to wear 
away, and the journey was continued in compara- 
tive comfort. Whatever sleep was had could be 
enjoyed only while sitting bolt upright, and hang- 
ing to the straps. At first the teams were changed 
every twenty miles; later, when faster time was 
sought, every ten miles. Small stations were erected 

[193] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

along the route, and the men on duty there had 
many a brush with Indians; in such cases the arriv- 
ing stages frequently found only ashes and dead 
bodies waiting to greet them. The conductor, or 
messenger as he was called, went through with the 
coach to Santa Fe, but the drivers were changed 
eight times in that distance. Occasionally an escort 
of soldiers, under a non-commissioned officer, rid- 
ing in a six-mule army wagon, would accompany 
the stage through a specially hostile region, but 
generally the travellers were compelled to rely upon 
their own resources for safety. 

The First Transcontinental Stage Line 

Shortly after this opening of a stage line to 
Santa Fe, a monthly service was inaugurated be- 
tween Independence and Salt Lake, a distance of 
twelve hundred miles. It was not successful but 
continued to transport mails and an occasional pas- 
senger, for four years. In 1854 the Government 
felt the necessity of a direct mail line to the Pacific 
Coast, and voted the sum of $80,000 per annum for 
that purpose. The contractors ran monthly stages 
from Missouri, via Albuquerque, to Stockton, Cali- 
fornia. This effort never paid: during the nine 
months of experiment, the receipts were only $1,255. 
Yet, because it was south of the greatest danger 
from snow, this was the route selected for the oper- 
ating of the first great transcontinental stage line, 
that known as Butterfield's " Southern Overland 
Mail." It ran 2,759 miles, from St. Louis, via El 

[194] 



THE OVERLAND STAGE LINES 

Paso, Yuma, and Los Angeles, to San Francisco, 
and was probably the longest continuous run ever 
operated. For this tremendous distance, over plains, 
deserts, and mountains, its accomplished schedule 
time was at first twenty-five days; later it was re- 
duced to twenty-three. Its record run was tv>^enty- 
one days. The coaches of this pioneer Overland 
started at the same time, September 15, 1858, from 
St. Louis and San Francisco. At their safe arrival 
at those distant terminals on schedule time, they re- 
ceived a mighty ovation. The rate of fare for the 
full distance was a hundred dollars gold, and let- 
ters cost ten cents per half ounce. 

The establishment of such a line was a business 
enterprise of much magnitude and risk. It involved 
peril with every mile of the distance, and the pos- 
sibility of loss with each turn of the wheels. The 
complete equipment consisted of more than one hun- 
dred Concord coaches, 1,000 horses, 500 mules, and 
750 men, of whom 150 were drivers. The monthly 
schedule soon became semi-weekly, and finally six 
times a week the laden stages rolled out on their 
long trips. Lummis writes : 

"The deadly deserts through which nearly half its route 
lay, the sand-storm, the mirage, the hell of thirst, the dangerous 
Indian tribes, and its vast length — forty per cent greater than 
that of any other stage line in our national story — made it a 
monumental undertaking; and the name of John Butterfield de- 
serves to be remem.bered along with those Americans who helped 
to win the West." 

This ''Southern Overland" was operated with 
scarcely a break in regularity until the commence- 

[195] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

ment of the Civil War. Tliat conflict rendered im- 
possible the longer carrying of the mail so far south, 
and necessitated the Overland being transferred to 
a more northern and shorter route, where drivers 
and passengers must brave the peril of the mountain 
snow. The " Central" line was selected for the new 
route ; the first stages to travel its two thousand miles 
left St. Joseph and Placerville simultaneously, on 
July I, 1861, and each completed the journey on 
the eighteenth. 

Abe Majors, Stage Line Operator 

This new adventure in travel brought into prom- 
inence other leaders in Western transportation. Rus- 
sell, Majors, and Waddell, and Ben Holladay were 
the most famous, and among them all Holladay and 
Majors are worthy of special mention. Abe Majors 
would have been a remarkable character anywhere; 
on the Plains he was unique. A Kentucky Christian 
who never drank, never swore, and who compelled 
his drivers to sign an iron-clad contract to be 
equally abstemious under penalty of being "fired" 
without pay, he was for years one of the truly pic- 
turesque figures of the frontier. He was, besides, a 
wonderful operator, and organized a business of 
vast proportions. His Merchants' Express was, 
in that age, the largest commercial transportation 
enterprise ever organized under one administration, 
and his "bull teams" were on every trail between 
the Missouri and the Rockies. When he was a 
young man himself, and a " bull-whacker," he made 

[196] 



THE OVERLAND STAGE LINES 

the "Broadhorn" record on the Santa Fe Trail, 
completing the round trip with oxen in ninety-two 
days. Later in life, when he took up Government 
contracts, he ran over 3,500 wagons in that service 
alone, employing 4,000 men, 1,000 mules, and more 
than 40,000 oxen. In addition to this Majors be- 
came also one of the two stage-line kings of the 
Plains. As Lummis puts it, '' For debt, folly of his 
partners, or other reasons alien to his choice, in his 
own despite he became responsible head of more 
miles and harder miles, more animals and less 
'gentled' ones, more Concord coaches and more 
* kingwhips,' than any man before or since, save only 
Ben Holladay." Between Leavenworth and Den- 
ver he controlled a thousand mules and fifty coaches. 
The first of these to reach the Colorado town ar- 
rived May 17, 1859, making the 665-mile trip in six 
days. Among the passengers on this pioneer " Hoss- 
power Pullman" were Horace Greeley, Henry Vil- 
lard, and Albert D. Richardson. On the overland 
route between St. Joe and Salt Lake a stage line 
had been operated, after a fashion, by the firm of 
Hockaday and Liggett. In 1858 their semi-monthly 
trips averaged twenty- two days. When Majors got 
hold he cut the twelve-hundred-mile run to ten 
days, and operated a daily coach. The difficulty and 
peril of such achievements is made manifest when 
,we remember that from Denver to Salt Lake there 
was not a single town, hamlet, or house for six hun- 
dred miles. 

[197] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 



Ben HoUaday 



In 1859, counting the Panama Steamer, there 
were six established mail routes to California. But 
Ben Holladay was King. A historian of this era 
says: 

"No other one man anywhere has owned and managed a 
transportation system at once so vast and so difficult. He had 
sixteen first-class passenger steamers plying the Pacific from San 
Francisco to Oregon, Panama, Japan, and China. At the height 
of his overland business he operated nearly 5,000 miles of daily 
mail-stages, with about 500 coaches and express wagons, 500 
freight wagons, 5,000 horses and mules, and a host of oxen." 

The figures connected with this far-reaching en- 
terprise are almost beyond present comprehension. 
On the main line between St. Joe and San Francisco 
there were used 100 Concord coaches, drawn by 
2,750 horses and mules. The sum of $55,000 was 
expended for harness alone, while the feed bill ap- 
proximated a million dollars yearly. It has been 
officially stated that $2,425,000 was expended the 
first twelve months in equipment and operating ex- 
penses. The Government paid Holladay at this 
time a million a year in mail contracts; but the cost 
of provisions for animals was immense, grain going 
to twenty-five cents a pound, and hay selling as high 
as $125 a ton. The greatness of the demand is evi- 
denced by the fact that in one day an agent in St. 
Louis contracted for seven Missouri River steamers 
to load with corn for the army of mules and horses 
employed. 

[198] 



THE OVERLAND STAGE LINES 

Wells, Fargo & Co. 

HoUaday's reign as King lasted for five years, 
beginning in December, 1861. It was brought to 
a close by the disastrous raids of the Plains Indians 
during the time of trouble 1864-66, when his stage- 
line was crippled, nearly all his stations for four 
hundred miles being burned, his stock stolen and 
his employees killed. The actual loss inflicted was 
above half a million. This disaster forced him into 
selling in November, 1866, to Wells, Fargo & Co. 
The main operations of this latter firm, long known 
throughout the West, and to the present day, as 
'* Wells, Fargo," occurred later than the limits cov- 
ered by this work, yet was of such importance as 
to justify the quoting of Lummis's words regarding 
its history: 

"It not only covers more ground than any other carrier; 
it is the inventor of the shotgun messenger, and the only express 
company by which wives and babies were ever way-billed two 
thousand miles through a country of hostile Indians. No other 
company has transported so much treasure; and its reports are 
as indispensable to the student of mining statistics as those of 
the Director of the Mint." 

Achievements in Passenger Transportation 

But to resume Ben HoUaday's wonderful rec- 
ord. Some of the driving done on his line probably 
surpassed any other recorded in the history of 
staging, and the most rapid trips were always ac- 
complished while he rode in the coach. The ordi- 
nary schedule from Salt Lake to Atchison, twelve 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

hundred miles, was eleven days, but on one occa- 
sion it was covered in eight days and six hours. 
From Placerville, California, to Atchison^ which 
in the regular run required seventeen days, the dis- 
tance being 1,913 miles, a trip was made by Holla- 
day in twelve days and two hours. This achieve- 
ment aroused the enthusiasm of the entire country, 
and was a big advertisement for his line, although 
it is believed to have cost over twenty thousand 
dollars in wear and tear of animals and rolling 
stock. 

When one considers the lonely, dangerous coun- 
try through which this long road ran, the isolated 
stations, the expense of equipment, the difficulty of 
transporting supplies, the rates charged for over- 
land travel were comparatively low. The old But- 
terfield fare of one hundred dollars for 2,759 rniles 
almost, if not quite, equals present railroad rates; 
and the HoUaday tariff cannot be considered ex- 
cessive. Up to 1863 ^^^ f^r^ charged from the 
Missouri River to Placerville, including meals, was 
$225. Toward the close of the Civil War, partly 
on account of heavy losses from Indian raids, the 
cost began to soar, and the 620 miles to Denver 
necessitated an expenditure of $175. Lummis states 
that it once reached $350, or fifty-four cents a mile, 
with meals extra. The tariff for express over this 
route at that time was one dollar a pound. During 
this reign of high prices $600 was paid for coach 
passage through to Placerville, the baggage allow- 
ance being limited to twenty-five pounds. 

[200] 



THE OVERLAND STAGE LINES 

The era of the overland stage from the Missouri 
to the Pacific covered about eight years, beginning 
with the Fall of 1858. It w^as filled with wonder- 
ful achievements, with desperate encounters, with 
strange adventures in the wilderness. In difficulties 
overcome and dangers conquered, this struggle 
against hardships and savagery is without parallel 
in the history of transportation. It is to be hoped 
that sometime, and that soon, some delver among 
the records may give to the world the detailed 
story of those days and nights upon plains, deserts, 
and mountains. It is an Iliad worthy of its Homer. 
As one has already written: 

"It took Men to 'run,' and Men to journey in, the stages 
of that generation. The messengers in charge of express and 
mail on the main line of the Overland had a steady run of six 
days and nights without taking off their clothes. As for the 
drivers, there is no question that they were, as a class, the best 
whips in history. Hank Monk (whom Horace Greeley made 
famous), Keno Armstrong, Jack Gilmer, Billy Opdike, Enoch 
Cummings, and others — those were the mightiest jehus that ever 
' pushed on the reins,' or * sent 'em ' down the Rockies or the 
Sierra Nevada. They were generic heroes of the song not yet 
forgotten when I was young, 'The High Salaried Driver of the 
Denver City Line.' So far as I am aware, the record single run 
was that made by Keno Armstrong, who drove 610 miles in no 
hours without sleep, straight-away." 

In considering such achievements in passenger 
transportation it must be remembered that these re- 
sults were accomplished over roads seldom, if ever, 
touched by either the spade or the plough. The 
old coaches pounded straight ahead over unbroken 
prairie, and across the dead level of the Plain; they 

[201] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

forded rivers, they climbed mountains, they pitched 
headlong down the opposite slope, they skirted prec- 
ipices, and swept over trackless deserts of shifting 
sand, more by the grace of God than any help of 
man. As one recalls all this, and reflects upon those 
leagues of desolation, the more the wonder grows, 
the deeper the respect for those who worked the 
miracle. 

The Concord Coach 
Nor can we now dismiss this story out of the 
past without paying due honor to the vehicle which 
made such journey a possibility — that most famous 
of all coaches, the Concord. It was almost univer- 
sally employed throughout the era of the stage- 
coach, and, for the purpose for which it was de- 
signed, it has never been surpassed. It was built in 
Concord, New Hampshire, by the Abbott-Downing 
Company, first established in 1813. They were 
mechanics, reliable and thorough, who built these 
coaches for plain and mountain, and their work was 
ever well done. The distinguishing characteristic 
of the Concord coach was that, instead of steel 
springs, the coach-body was swung on thorough 
braces of simple device enough, yet which resulted 
in the easiest riding carriage for all kinds of roads 
ever invented. This thorough brace was of stout 
leather, the strap ends firmly attached to C springs 
front and rear. The ordinary coach used upon the 
Overland would carry nine passengers inside, and 
one or two with the driver. The messenger hung 
on as best he could. Oftentimes both messenger and 

[202] 



THE OVERLAND STAGE LINES 

driver would be asleep while the six mules went 
spinning along eight or ten miles an hour. The 
former usually covered a distance of two hundred 
and fifty miles, while the latter had a shorter route, 
going constantly back and forth over the same 
stretch until, in the darkest night, he could unhesi- 
tatingly find his way. 

The stage management was rigid in discipline. 
A special agent had absolute control over each di- 
vision of about two hundred and fifty miles. He 
purchased horses, mules, harness, and food for men 
and animals, and his word was law. In fact he 
engaged and discharged men at pleasure, and ruled 
his section like an autocrat. The drivers were the 
most highly paid employees, receiving from $150 to 
$250 per month with board. Their wages were 
gauged according to difficulty of route and length 
of service. All classes of men were to be found in 
the drivers' seats, from college graduates to border 
desperadoes. The vast amount of money invested 
in this enterprise is shown by HoUaday's sale to 
Wells, Fargo & Co. in 1866. The main line and 
branches brought one million five hundred thous- 
and dollars in cash, and three hundred thousand 
dollars in Express Company stock. Yet this vast 
sum merely covered animals, rolling stock, stations, 
etc., and, in addition, the purchasers were to pay 
full value for hay, grain, and provisions on hand. 
These totalled nearly six hundred thousand dollars 
more. 

[203] 



CHAPTER VII 

ADVENTURES AND TRAGEDIES ON THE 
OVERLAND 

Sufferings from the Elements 

THE Santa Fe Trail being the first used for stag- 
ing purposes, was also the first to be reddened 
with blood, and to witness the hardships of prairie 
travel. From the earliest attempts accidents were 
frequent, and suffering from exposure to the ele- 
ments was common. The terrible summer storms 
sweeping the level Plains, or driving desert sand 
in clouds, would delay the weary travellers for days 
in the utmost discomfort. Occasionally the eight 
frisky mules would prove too much for their driver, 
and there would be a runaway, and a broken coach, 
to be repaired with whatever tools might be at hand. 
In wet weather for mile after mile the passengers 
might be compelled to plod beside the wheels, la- 
boriously prying them out of the clinging mud, and 
burdening the air with profanity. But in the moun- 
tain district to be traversed before reaching Santa 
Fe, the most serious disasters usually occurred dur- 
ing the winter. To be caught there by a raging 
snow-storm was certain to be a terrible experience. 
All that could be done, with the trail blotted com- 
pletely from sight, was to wait the cessation of the 
storm. Passengers and employees had to crowd into 
the coach and use every effort to keep from freez- 

[204] 



ADVENTURES AND TRAGEDIES 

ing, and at the end often found themselves minus 
mules with which to complete the journey. Yet 
even more a summer hail-storm was to be dreaded, 
for nowhere else do such ice-chunks descend from 
the sky. Invariably such a storm meant a stampede 
of the mules, nor would a man dare to desert his 
shelter to seek them. 

A Massacre by Apaches 

The first notable tragedy on the Santa Fe Trail 
in connection with stage coaching occurred almost 
with the first effort at establishing the line. It was 
a west-bound Concord, containing a full comple- 
ment of passengers, including a Mr. White, his 
wife, child, and colored nurse. The journey was 
not an unpleasant one across the wide expanse of 
Plains. The Raton Range had been safely sur- 
mounted, and, just about dawn one morning, the 
heavy coach entered the canyon of the Canadian, 
it occupants unsuspicious of any danger. Instantly 
they were fiercely attacked by an ambushed party 
of Apaches under White Wolf. With scarcely any 
opportunity for defence, the unfortunate whites 
were shot down, scalped, and their mutilated bodies 
left upon the ground. Mrs. White, her child, and 
nurse were borne away prisoners. At Taos were 
several troops of the Second Dragoons under Major 
Greer. The story of this outrage did not reach them 
for nearly two weeks, but upon its receipt the Major 
at once started out on a hard winter campaign in 
hope of rescuing the captives. The soldiers had 

[205] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

with them as guides several famous frontiersmen, 
Kit Carson, " Uncle Dick" Wooton, Joaquin Le- 
roux, and Tom Tobin. The heavy snow made trail- 
ing almost impossible, yet the scouts discovered 
" signs," and, amid much suffering, followed the 
Indian trail for nearly four hundred miles, and 
finally located the village. Everything was made 
ready for a charge, when Major Greer suddenly de- 
cided to have a parley with the savages before com- 
mencing to fight. This decision not only greatly en- 
raged the eager troopers, but gave the Indians 
ample time in which to prepare for action. They 
took full advantage of the opportunity, and poured 
in the first volley, Greer being struck in the breast, 
his life saved by a suspender buckle. This occur- 
rence took from him all desire for further peace 
talk, and the fight was on. The troopers charged 
twice, killing and wounding more than a hundred 
Indians, but the chief escaped, and, when the sol- 
diers finally captured the village, they found there 
the body of Mrs. White, yet warm, with three ar- 
rows in her breast. No trace of either the child or 
the colored nurse was ever found. 

White Wolf was killed later by Lieutenant 
David Bell, Second Dragoons, in a most dramatic 
manner, and almost on the same spot where the 
murders had been perpetrated. While on a scout 
with his troop from Fort Union, New Mexico, Bell 
came upon White Wolf and an equal number of 
Apaches. A parley ensued, the controversy grow- 
ing so heated that suddenly the two leaders ex- 

[206] 



ADVENTURES AND TRAGEDIES 

changed shots, the chief sinking on one knee to aim, 
and Bell throwing his body forward, and causing 
his horse to rear, Inman describes what followed: 

"Both lines by command fired, following the example of 
their superiors, the troopers, however, spurring forward over 
their enemies. The warriors, or nearly all of them, threw them- 
selves on the ground, and several vertical wounds were received 
by horse and rider. The dragoons turned short about, and again 
charged through and over their enemies, the fire being continu- 
ous. As they turned for a third charge, the surviving Indians 
were seen escaping to a deep ravine, which, although only one 
or two hundred paces off, had not previously been noticed. A 
number of the savages thus escaped, the troopers having to pull 
up at the brink, but sending a volley after the descending fugi- 
tives. In less than fifteen minutes twenty-one of the forty-six 
actors in this strange combat were slain or disabled. Bell was 
not hit, but four or five of his men were killed or wounded. He 
had shot White Wolf several times." 

Some Indian Leaders 

In those early days of stage-coaching along the 
Santa Fe Trail the two most noted leaders of In- 
dian raids were Santana (White Bear), a chief of 
the Kiowa nation, and Charles Bent, a half-breed 
desperado. In later years Kicking Bird, also a 
Kiowa, became the terror of the Plains. The latter 
was finally poisoned by a Mexican woman in 1876. 
Santana had his headquarters in what is now knov/n 
as the Cheyenne Bottoms, eight miles from the 
Great Bend of the Arkansas, and about the same 
distance from old Fort Zarah. He was as cruel and 
heartless a savage as ever ambushed a stage-coach 
or murdered helpless women. For fifteen years he 

[207] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

was the terror of the Trail, and his acts of atrocity 
were incessant. Charles Bent had for father the 
famous Colonel Bent, of Bent's Fort, but his mother 
was a Cheyenne squaw. Well educated in St. Louis, 
he no sooner returned to the Plains than he devel- 
oped into a blood-thirsty desperado, organizing a 
body of young warriors, later known as " dog sol- 
diers," and beginning a series of depredations 
against the whites. With over a hundred men un- 
der him he robbed ranches, and attacked wagon 
trains, coaches, and army caravans. The history of 
his bloody deeds will never be told, for dead men 
tell no tales, and seldom did Bent leave any alive 
after a raid. From Walnut Creek to the mountains 
no traveller was safe from attack by the " dog 
soldiers"; and oftentimes a caravan started forth 
having the disguised Bent as guide, for his plans us- 
ually involved treachery. The Government offered 
five thousand dollars for his capture, dead or alive, 
but death finally came to him in the form of malar- 
ial fever. 

Robbers, White and Red 

Indian peril on the northern overland 
route, while never wholly absent, grew most 
serious during the period of the Civil War, 
when the Plains tribes became largely hos- 
tile. Road agents also became very much in 
evidence, and the robbery of stages was not 
uncommon. In July, 1865, a stage carrying seven 
passengers, and containing a considerable amount 
of gold bullion was the object of such an attack. 

[208] 



ADVENTURES AND TRAGEDIES 

The passengers were all old frontiersmen, and, an- 
ticipating a possible attempt at robbery, were pre- 
pared for a desperate defence. But treachery 
worked their ruin. Beside the driver, named Frank 
Williams, sat one of the robbers, thoroughly dis- 
guised. At a lonely spot this man suddenly shouted 
an alarm that the robbers were upon them. A shot 
was fired from beside the trail, and the men inside 
the coach instantly discharged their guns toward 
the supposed ambush. Immediately a regular vol- 
ley was poured in from the opposite side; four of 
the passengers fell dead, another was severely 
wounded. Two men saved their lives ; one feigning 
death in the bottom of the coach, the other escaping 
into the brush. The robbers secured over $70,000, 
and it was later discovered that the driver, Wil- 
liams, was an accomplice, and received his share. 
He was tracked to Denver, and hanged with very 
little ceremony. 

In 1862 the Indian raids on the coaches and sta- 
tions between Fort Laramie and South Pass were 
almost continuous. In April of that year occurred 
a terrible fight between the mail-stage and savages, 
on the Sweetwater. There were two coaches loaded 
with mail, and nine men, the leaders being Lem 
Flowers, a division agent, and the conductor named 
Brown. The Indians attacked at dawn, as was 
their custom, and the whites were compelled to run 
their coaches alongside each other, pile mail-sacks 
between the wheels, and throw sand over them for 
breastworks. Here they fought their assailants all 

[209] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

day, six of the men being wounded, and all their 
stock driven off. A number of Indians were killed, 
and at night they withdrew, leaving the defenders 
to harness themselves to the running-gear, and thus 
draw their wounded comrades to safety. Another 
memorable raid was made all along the two hun- 
dred miles between Julesburg and Liberty Farm, at 
the head of the Little Blue, in August, 1864. Mail 
coaches, freight caravans, ranches, and parties put- 
ting up hay were attacked simultaneously. More 
than forty whites were killed, and the destruction 
of property was very large. 

Buffalo Bill as a Stage-Driver 

The route lying along the North Platte became 
so dangerous that it was almost impossible to secure 
drivers even at the highest wages. W. F. Cody 
(Buffalo Bill) was at this time a driver between 
Split Rock and Three Crossings, one of the most 
perilous sections. He had his full share of narrow 
escapes. Once he was set upon by a band of several 
hundred Sioux. A Division Agent named Flowers 
was on the box with him, and inside were half a 
dozen well-armed passengers. As soon as Cody got 
glimpse of the Indians, he handed the reins to Flow- 
ers, and began applying the whip. There followed 
a hot running fight, the passengers firing from the 
coach windows, and the Indian arrows flying 
thickly, wounding the horses, badly injuring Flow- 
ers, and killing two of the passengers. The others 
escaped after a hard run. In the Spring of 1865 

[210] 



ADVENTURES AND TRAGEDIES 

the Plains tribes again became very troublesome, 
and raided the stage line almost from end to end. 
Soldiers were used to guard the coaches, yet at- 
tacks were frequent, and the loss in property and 
lives was large. Passengers took their lives in their 
hands, and only the most daring and reckless men 
volunteered for the desperate service of driver or 
messenger. 

Military Guards for Coaches 

This custom of guarding coaches by soldiers 
along the Overland was inaugurated during the 
Sioux uprising of 1863. George P. Belden, well 
known in those days as "The White Chief," thus 
describes the disagreeable duties : 

"Troops were stationed in small squads at every station, 
about ten miles apart, and they rode from station to station on 
the top of all coaches, holding their guns ever ready for action. 
It was not pleasant, this sitting perched up on top of a coach, 
riding through dark ravines and tall grass, in which savages 
were ever lurking. Generally the first fire from the Indians 
killed one or two horses, and tumbled a soldier or two off the 
top of the coach. This setting oneself as a sort of target was a 
disagreeable and dangerous duty, but the soldiers performed it 
without murmuring. My squad had to ride up to Cottonwood, 
and down to the station below, where they waited for the next 
coach going the other way, and returned by it to their post at 
Gilman's. All the other stations were guarded in like manner, 
so it happened that every coach carried some soldiers." 

Military Posts to Protect Settlements 

A brief review of the operations of military 
scouting parties in the region about Julesburg, 
Colorado, which was the centre of hostilities on the 

[211] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Plains, and occasionally entirely cut off from com- 
munication, well illustrates the desperate nature of 
their duties. During 1863-4-5 ^^e Sioux, Arapahoes, 
and Cheyennes were all upon the warpath, and not 
a mile of prairie between the upper Missouri and 
the Arkansas was safe for a white traveller. As 
early as i860 trouble began, after the beginning of 
emigration to Colorado and the discovery of gold 
in the Rocky Mountains. Bent's Fort was occupied 
by troops, and, in anticipation of coming events, 
several new posts were established throughout the 
Indian country, and occupied by small garrisons. 
The breaking out of the Civil War required the 
withdrawal of many of the regulars from the Plains, 
and the Indians, quick to perceive their opportunity, 
began wholesale depredations. In 1862 the Sioux 
made savage onslaught far east into Minnesota, and 
the general uprising among the tribes which fol- 
lowed extended to the Rocky Mountains, and even 
to the banks of the Columbia. In numbers engaged 
it attained to the magnitude of war, but was carried 
on in guerilla fashion. 

The greater portion of the Plains country was 
then without permanent inhabitants, scarcely any- 
thing breaking the desolation excepting the isolated 
stations along the Overland and Santa Fe Trails, 
with a few scattered settlements extending into the 
prairies of Kansas and Nebraska. Though they 
occasionally attacked small bodies of troops, the sav- 
ages directed their main efforts against the trains 
of freight wagons, and the comparatively defence- 

[212] 




. 1-«^^ K^ 



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01 *<. 



'^^ 






^^«^>ai|^ ? -ciJ! 



f -'IfifiMH^ 



-^ J-' 



rL.»#X'.jts^Orir 






THE UMTED STATES ARMY IN SERVICE ON THE PLAINS 

IN CONFLICT WITH WINTER STORMS— THE LAST STAND — ON THE MARCH 



ADVENTURES AND TRAGEDIES 

less stage stations. The most important of these, 
situated in the very heart of this blood-stained ter- 
ritory, was Julesburg. This point was then the 
junction between the Overland main line and the 
newly established branch leading to Denver. It 
was also the headquarters of the telegraph on the 
Plains, which had been inaugurated in 1861. Jules- 
burg must have contained at this period something 
over a hundred civilian inhabitants, most of them 
employees of the stage company. As protection for 
both lines the Government later erected Fort Sedg- 
wick on the South Fork of the Platte. Julesburg 
was attacked on several occasions, and in February, 
1864, was burned to the ground. About fifty-five 
miles of the telegraph line was entirely destroyed, 
and stage stations razed, and employees killed, for 
long distances east and west. About the same time, 
a force of over two thousand Indians made a de- 
termined attack upon a detachment of troops, under 
Lieutenant-colonel Collins at Rush Creek, eighty- 
five miles north of Julesburg. There followed a 
twenty-four-hour fight, from which the whites 
emerged with a loss of but three men killed, and 
eight wounded. Two months later Collins was 
again in battle at Mud Springs, but succeeded in 
driving off his assailants. 

As soon as the Spring of 1865 began to freshen 
the grass, the Indian tribes were again upon the 
warpath. In four weeks they had killed and cap- 
tured forty-five whites betwen Sage Creek and Vir- 
ginia Dale, but a combination of military forces 

[213] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

compelled the allied tribes to make professions of 
peace, and for a few months relieved the Trail of its 
horror. The full story of these years of soldierly 
endeavor and Indian treachery must be told in those 
chapters devoted to the work of the army, but it is 
easy to conceive the danger which night and day 
pursued those men who were then employed upon 
the Overland. Never for a moment could they feel 
secure; every trip promised to be their last, and 
many a time the coach dashed up to a station only 
to find it in ruins and surrounded by dead. The 
tales of suffering, of desperate fighting, of marvel- 
lous endurance, cling yet to every mile from the 
Little Blue to Laramie. The dead of those awful 
years lie numberless and nameless in their unknown, 
scattered graves. 



[214] 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE PONY EXPRESS 

Need of Better Mail Service for California 

IF ANY one single achievement of the Plains 
should be chosen with which to stir the heart to 
admiration of adventure and picturesque environ- 
ment, it would certainly be the work done by those 
riders, who, through night and day, amid solitude 
and constant peril, swept at full speed, with their 
precious messages, from the Missouri to the Coast. 
It was a service absolutely unique in the history of 
men, and holds the world's record for organized and 
''scheduled" riding. Never before or since has 
mail been carried so fast and so far by horse power, 
never through such continuous danger, through 
such leagues of utter desolation, and never were 
mounts so steadily spurred to highest speed in any 
regular service. 

The gold discovery of 1848 in California led to 
a wonderful exodus to the Pacific Coast. In vast 
streams the huge trains of American gold-seekers 
swept across the Plains and the mountains, by the 
Overland, the Oregon, and the Santa Fe Trails. As 
many more found passage to the far West by way 
of Panama and Nicaragua, or by means of the 
long voyage around stormy Cape Horn. Within 
ten years the population of California had so greatly 
increased that the desire for more rapid communi- 

[215] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

cation with the East became imperative. The in- 
sistent demand of these isolated California miners 
was taken to Washington by their representative, 
Senator Gwinn, and in the Winter of 1859 he suc- 
ceeded in inducing the firm of Russell, Majors & 
Waddell to undertake the gigantic enterprise of 
the Pony Express. This firm already had a daily 
stage-coach in operation between the Missouri 
River and Salt Lake, with stations located every ten 
or twelve miles along the route. These could be 
easily utilized for this new service, but beyond Salt 
Lake other similar stations had to be established, 
and the best possible route selected for rapid travel. 
However, in less than two months after Russell gave 
his promise to Gwinn, everything was in readiness, 
and the gallant riders were ofi on their long race 
half across a continent. 

The Men and the Ponies Required for the Work 

We may scarcely comprehend the magnitude of 
the preparations necessary for such an enterprise. 
To carry this fast mail over the route selected be- 
tween St. Joseph, Missouri, and San Francisco, a 
distance of nineteen hundred and fifty miles, over 
barren plains and through dangerous mountains, 
there were required five hundred horses, one hun- 
dred and ninety stations, two hundred men to take 
charge of them, and eighty carefully selected riders, 
who must each day make an average ride at full 
speed of thirty-three and one-third miles. The sta- 
tions were sometimes from sixty-five to even a hun- 

[216] 



THE PONY EXPRESS 

dred miles apart, according to the location of water. 
The fastest time ever made on the Butterfield 
Route between New York and San Francisco was 
twenty-one days; the Pony Express cut it to less 
than eight. Its scheduled time from the Missouri 
River was ten days; its reckless riders never re- 
quired more, while on one occasion they lowered 
this remarkable record to seven days and seventeen 
hours, and more than once to a little over eight 
days. 

The men employed were chosen with great 
care; they were men noted for bravery, coolness, 
and lithe, wiry physiques.. In Inman's appreciative 
words : 

" It was no easy duty ; horse and human flesh were strained 
to the limits of physical tension. Day or night, in sunshine 
or in storm, under the darkest skies, in the pale moonlight, and 
with only the stars at times to guide him, the brave rider must 
speed on. Rain, hail, snow, or sleet, there was no delay; his 
precious burden of letters demanded his best efforts under the 
stern necessities of the hazardous service; it brooked no deten- 
tion; on he must ride. Sometimes his pathway led across level 
prairies, straight as the flight of an arrow. It was oftener a 
zig-zag trail hugging the brink of awful precipices, and dark, 
narrow caiions infested with watchful savages eager for the 
scalp of the daring man who had the temerity to enter their 
mountain fastness." 

These riders had to be always ready at their 
stations — not only for their regular trip, but for 
any emergency which might arise, as they were fre- 
quently called upon for double duty; at any mo- 
ment they must be prepared to spring into saddle 
and be off like a shot. The ponies employed were 

[217] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

magnificent specimens, selected for speed and en- 
durance. Most carefully fed and housed, on the 
road they were pushed to their utmost; spurred ten 
miles at the very limit of pace, the animal came 
dashing in to the next station flecked with foam, 
nostrils dilated, and every hair wet with perspira- 
tion. Nearly two thousand miles must be covered 
in nine days or less — neither pony nor man could 
idle. The rider was allowed but two minutes at a 
station in which to exchange mounts, yet it scarcely 
required more than two seconds. Almost before he 
touched the ground the man was off again, a dim 
speck down the trail. Two hundred and fifty miles 
a day was the distance travelled, and the rider could 
carry no surplus weight. His sole arms were a re- 
volver and a knife; his case of precious letters made 
into a bundle no larger than an ordinary writing 
tablet. The mail-bags v/ere two pouches of leather, 
impervious to rain, sealed, and strapped securely to 
the saddle both before and behind. They never 
contained over twenty pounds in weight, and in- 
side, for better protection from possible exposure, 
the letters and despatches were wrapped in oil silk, 
and separately sealed. The pouches were not 
opened between River and Coast. 

These riders were paid from one hundred dol- 
lars to one hundred and twenty-five dollars a 
month, and " found." The postage charged during 
the earlier months of the service was five dollars 
per half-ounce, but was later reduced to one dollar, 
at which sum it remained until the completion of 

[218] 



THE PONY EXPRESS 

the Overland telegraph in October, 1861. Letters 
thus carried were written on the thinnest tissue pa- 
per; papers destined for the Coast were printed on 
the same thin paper, and had to be sent in letter 
envelopes at letter postage. A messenger has re- 
corded that he remembered handling one letter 
which had on it twenty-five Pony Express stamps 
of one dollar each, and twenty-five United States 
ten-cent stamps. It is safe to say no mail was thus 
sent unless considered of the greatest value. And 
the Pony Express had a proud record for safety, 
as well as efficiency. In all its career it lost but one 
mail. Another came very near doubling the list, 
as the rider was waylaid by Indians and scalped. 
But the pony broke away, and came clattering into 
the next station, severely wounded, with the saddle- 
bags intact, leaving his rider dead in the desert. 
All the riding was not the same, as the distance 
to be covered, and the length between stations, was 
largely determined by the character of the country. 
Along some parts of the route the trail had to be 
covered at the astounding pace of twenty-five miles 
an hour. 

The First Run of the Pony Express 

The first day of the start was the third of April, 
i860, the time noon. At exactly the same hour the 
riders, the one facing east, the other west, left Sac- 
ramento and St. Joseph. The first starter from Cal- 
ifornia was Harry Rofif, on a half-breed bronco. 
He covered the first twenty miles, with one change, 
in fifty-nine minutes. He rode on at top speed 

[219] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

fifty-five miles farther to Placerville at the foot of 
the Sierra Nevadas. Here a rider known as Bos- 
ton grasped the mail-bag, crossed the eastern sum- 
mit of the Sierras, and ended his run at Friday's 
Station. Sam Hamilton came next, spurring his 
pony through Genoa, Carson City, Dayton, and 
Reed's Station to Fort Churchill, a seventy-five 
mile run. The mail by now was one hundred and 
eighty-five miles out, including the crossing of the 
Sierra Nevadas through thirty feet of snow; the 
time consumed fifteen hours and twenty minutes. 
From Churchill Bob Haslam (''Pony Bob") fol- 
lowed the trail one hundred and twenty miles, 
through a hostile Indian country, to Smith's Creek, 
where Jay G. Kelly swung the precious bag to his 
saddle, and spurred away to Ruby Valley, Utah, a 
heart-breaking ride of one hundred and sixteen 
miles of desert. Richardson came next, one hun- 
dred and five miles to Deep Creek. The last part 
of the western division, the fifty miles between 
Camp Floyd and Salt Lake City, was covered by 
George Thacher. From St. Joseph Johnny Frey 
started the run westward, his pony bursting away 
from the midst of a crowd of enthusiastic specta- 
tors. That first run was made in less than ten days. 

Experiences of Buffalo Bill as an Express Rider 

The adventures of these Pony Express riders, 
the stories of their hardihood and marvellous horse- 
manship, are numberless. Perhaps the best-known 
name among them is that of William F. Cody 

[220] 




Copyright. By courtesij S. Si. McCliire Co. 
A MULE TRAIN AT THE FORD 



pr- 




^Jp^ 



Cupijright. By courtesy S. S. McClure (V 
THE SOUTHERN OVERLAND MAIL STAGE 



SCENES INCIDENT TO TRAVEL ACROSS THE PLAINS 



THE PONY EXPRESS 

(" Buffalo Bill ") , who first began riding in the serv- 
ice when only a boy of fourteen, yet " made good" 
in a work, the ceaseless hardship of which was cal- 
culated to try the nerve and endurance of the most 
daring men. Afraid that Cody would break down 
under the strain, "Old Jules," then owner of the 
Julesburg Ranch, and Division Agent for the Pony 
Express line, started the boy with an easy run of 
forty-five miles, with three changes of horses. He 
rode there two months, and then applied for an- 
other position under Slade, afterwards a notorious 
desperado, who had the division west of Laramie. 
He got it, being assigned to ride from Red Buttes 
on the North Platte to the Three Crossings of the 
Sweetwater, a distance of one hundred and sixteen 
miles. Again the boy "made good"; more than 
that — on one occasion he broke the record for the 
longest Pony Express ride. One day galloping into 
Three Crossings he found the rider who was to go 
on had been killed the night before in a drunken 
row. The distance to the next station. Rocky Ridge, 
was eighty-five miles over a bad and dangerous 
trail. Without a moment's delay Cody went for- 
ward, and he made the 384 miles of his round trip, 
without stops, except to change horses and swallow 
one hasty meal — and the mail went through on 
time. 

A week later this same youthful messenger was 
chased by Sioux Indians near Horse Creek, but 
succeeded in outracing them to the station at Sweet- 
water. Here he fcund the stock all driven off and 

[221] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the station-keeper killed, and was compelled to con- 
tinue his ride with the same tired pony. The In- 
dian raids became so continuous that the operation 
of the Pony Express was discontinued for six weeks. 
In Inman's " Salt Lake Trail " are a number of an- 
ecdotes of Cody's experiences at this time, well illus- 
trating the danger of the Pony Express riders, and 
the constant necessity for coolness and nerve. And 
just such men rode the trail, day and night, from 
River to Coast. 

Other Express Riders 

**Pony Bob" (Robert H. Haslam) had a most 
remarkable record, and probably rode Express 
longer than any other messenger. He was in the 
first relay, and remained in the service to the end. 
His regular run was from Buckland's to Friday's 
Station, crossing the Sierra Nevada, one of the 
hardest rides on the entire route. On one occasion 
he covered 380 miles without pause, through a 
region swarming with Indians on the warpath, 
who had already killed the next rider. On this trip 
he passed the smoking ruins of three stations, and 
the dead bodies of their keepers, yet he brought the 
mail barely three hours behind schedule time. After 
the telegraph had ended Pony Express riding, Has- 
lam became a Wells, Fargo messenger, making a 
hundred-mile round trip every twenty-four hours. 
For six months he ran between Reno and Virginia 
City every day, doing twenty-three miles in one 
houTj and using fifteen horses. On one of his rides 

[222] 



THE PONY EXPRESS 

he passed the remains of ninety Chinamen killed 
by Indians. Their bodies were scattered over ten 
miles. When he finally left the service the man who 
took his place, Macaulus, was killed by Indians on 
his first trip. 

Charles Cliff was a rider well known on the 
Plains division, having a run from St. Joseph to 
Seneca. He was once attacked by Indians, but 
escaped, receiving three balls in his body, and 
twenty-seven in his clothing. James Moore has 
credit for a remarkable ride. At Midway Station, 
western Nebraska, he received an important Govern- 
ment despatch to carry west. He spurred his ponies 
at top speed to Julesburg, one hundred and forty 
miles away. Here he found another important de- 
spatch for Washington, and that the rider who 
should carry it had been killed by Indians. With- 
out eating, and with a loss of only seven minutes, 
Moore immediately started back for Midway, and 
he made the round trip (280 miles) in fourteen 
hours and forty-six minutes. 

High Average Speed of the Pony Express 

As already stated, the schedule time between the 
Missouri and Sacramento was established at ten 
days. Never once did the Pony Express fail to 
make it, and on many occasions the daring riders 
came in far ahead. Buchanan's last message was 
whisked across the two thousand miles in eight days 
and a few hours; the news of Lincoln's election 
covered the 665 miles to Denver in two days and 

[223] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

twenty-one hours. But the record for such long- 
distance riding was completely shattered when Lin- 
coln's inaugural was borne from rider to rider to the 
Coast in the marvellous space of b«^j deven days and 
seventeen hours. It was a Pony Express rider who 
made the most wonderful straight-away ride ever 
made by man, but it was not performed in the 
course of duty. The rider was a Canadian, Francis 
Xavier Aubrey, and he rode on a bet that he could 
cover the distance between Santa Fe and Indepen- 
dence (800 miles) in eight days. One thousand dol- 
lars was involved. In the whole distance he did not 
stop to rest, changing horses only every hundred 
miles, and he made it in five days and thirteen 
hours. Aubrey has been described as of stocky 
build, light-hearted, genial, adventurous, and abso- 
lutely fearless. He was later killed in Santa Fe, 



[224] 



CHAPTER IX 

THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS— THE FIRST 
ENCOUNTERS 

Guerilla Warfare on the Plains 

ARMY operations on the Great Plains, both be- 
fore and during the Civil War, whether con- 
ducted by regulars or volunteers, were of a nature 
requiring but brief mention. While the various 
Indian tribes became more and more hostile in their 
relations with the whites, and were guilty of many 
atrocities, there was no concerted action in retalia- 
tion on the part of those in authority at Washing- 
ton. Numerous petty fights have been recorded, 
but there was no well organized campaign, no bat- 
tle of supreme importance, and no particular result 
achieved. For years guerilla warfare swept the 
border from end to end, doing an immense amount 
of damage to property, and costing an unknown 
number of lives. Treaties were repeatedly made 
and broken, settlements were raided and burned, 
wagon trains were attacked, the teamsters left dead 
on the trail, the mules captured, and the route of 
the Overland made into a dreary waste. The rea- 
son for all these things it is hard to discover, and, 
at this late day, equally futile the endeavor to fix 
the blame. In some cases it was undoubtedly the 
fault of the savages ; in many others the whites were 
the aggressors; while in not a few the awful pun- 

[225] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

ishment inflicted, whether by Indian or white, fell 
upon the innocent. In the years between 1840 and 
i860 no warlike alliance between the various Plains 
tribes appears to have existed. There was a 
vindictive feeling among all the Indians because of 
the steady white invasion of their country, but it 
had not yet crystallized into open rebellion under 
any competent leaders. The Comanches in the 
Southwest were always in a state of hostility, yet 
their war-parties were small, and they seldom ap- 
peared in any considerable force outside of New 
Mexico and western Texas, their usual method 
being that of surprise and swift attack. To the 
north the Sioux were never entirely safe, and their 
young men were restless and great wanderers. But 
in the middle Plains the major portion of the nu- 
merous outrages committed were doubtless done by 
semi-outlaw bands, under control of sub-chiefs eager 
for reputation, or half-breeds, like Brent, with no 
other purpose than plunder and a lust for crime. 

Disagreeable Nature of the Soldiers' Work 

This very fact rendered the services of the army 
on that wide frontier more disagreeable, hazardous, 
and difficult. If successful, they were devoid of 
honor; if otherwise, all the soldier might hope for 
was a forgotten grave. Isolated in rude forts, dur- 
ing the summer in temporary camps, a company of 
infantry here, a troop of horse yonder, with the 
nearest station hundreds of miles distant, and all 
around them dissatisfied and threatening savages 

[226] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

outnumbering them fifty to one, it was a service 
far from attractive to either officers or men. In de- 
tached parties they scouted the Plains from end to 
end ; they lived on half-rations, or no rations at all ; 
they marched and counter-marched; they burned 
and thirsted under the tropical summer sun of the 
Staked Plains, and faced the stinging blasts of Da- 
kota blizzards; they held peace councils with the 
tribes, halting many a projected raid by the sud- 
denness of their appearance where least expected; 
and, when all other means were exhausted, they 
fought battles never dignified by names, or noticed 
in history, and fought them gallantly and well. 

Numerous Indian Raids 

Little of this is to be found on record; it was 
the mere routine of service, totally obscured by the 
far greater events of the Civil War. Only here and 
there do certain happenings upon the broad Plains, 
and the bordering mountains, throw light upon this 
heroic work of the army. Almost immediately after 
the close of the Mexican War two or three tribes 
of the Plains entered into loose alliance to prey on 
the growing traffic of the Santa Fe Trail. So thor- 
oughly was this agreement carried out that the 
United States troops in New Mexico were for a 
time completely cut off from all supplies from the 
East. There was considerable fighting in eastern 
and northern New Mexico, before communication 
could be resumed. In 1854 all the inhabitants of 
the Pueblo, on the Arkansas, some twenty in num- 

[227] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

ber, were massacred by Ute Indians in a drunken 
revel. The following year troops from Fort Mas- 
sachusetts had a hard campaign in southern Colo- 
rado, punishing the Utes for numerous raids in 
New Mexico. The same year fifteen hundred 
lodges of Kiowas, Comanches, Osages, Arapahoes, 
and Cheyennes marched eastward across the Plains, 
determined to wipe out those more peaceful Indian 
tribes bordering the Missouri. They met their 
match, however, and were driven back after a three 
hours' battle on the banks of the Kansas River. In 
the Comanche country it was always war, and this 
tribe quarrelled openly with all others who entered 
into peace treaties with the whites. 

A War with the Sioux 

Farther north, for the purpose of protecting em- 
igration along the Oregon Trail, a small military 
force, composed of a single company reduced to 
twenty-five effective men, was stationed at Fort Lar- 
amie. About them were Sioux, Arapahoes, and 
Cheyennes, all far from friendly, numbering 5,500 
souls, of whom at least half were warriors. Thor- 
oughly despising so small an armed force of whites, 
these Indians, visiting the fort, became insolent, 
and had to be forcibly expelled beyond the limits 
of the post. This resulted in an encounter, in which 
shots were exchanged and four of the savages killed. 
The following spring Lieutenant Grattan, a young 
officer lately from West Point, accompanied by 
twenty-eight men, was sent to the camp of a band of 

[228] 




SCENES CHARACTERISTIC OF INDIAN ATTACK AND THE DE- 
FENCE OF THE SETTLERS 

THE LAST STAND — EMIGRANTS REPELLING AN ATTACK — DEFENDING THE 
WAGON TRAIN 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

Sioux with orders to make an arrest. Meeting with 
some resistance, the squad fired a volley, and imme- 
diately the Indians were upon them. Only one sol- 
dier escaped, in dying condition, and regained the 
fort. 

This was the beginning of a long and costly war 
with the Sioux nation. Measures were at once taken 
by the War Department to punish fitly the murder- 
ers of Grattan and his men, but owing to the late- 
ness of the season little was accomplished that year 
except the strengthening of the garrison at Laramie 
by three companies of the Sixth Infantry, under 
Major Hoffman, who assumed command. In the 
Spring of 1856 other troops arrived, but, there be- 
ing no cavalry, little could be accomplished, other 
than defensive guard. The Sioux captured all the 
mules belonging to the Quartermaster's Depart- 
ment, and escaped with them, meanwhile carrying 
out their threats, and constantly raiding the stage 
line, killing drivers and burning stations. General 
Harney, with a force of 1,500 soldiers marched up 
the valley of the Platte. His scouting parties had 
several small skirmishes on the way, but no blow of 
any severity was struck until September, when the 
entire force came upon a village of Brule Sioux, 
under Little Thunder, at Ash Hollow, a hundred 
miles southeast of Laramie. Here there was a few 
moments of rather hot fighting, in which many 
women and children, and a few warriors were 
killed. The action resulted in a temporary truce. 

[229] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

This same year Fort Randall was established in the 
Yankton country. 

Sumner's Expedition against the Cheyennes 

While this rather bloodless campaign was being 
conducted in the north, the Cheyennes were making 
things interesting along the middle Plains, and 
keeping busy the small garrisons of the only two 
posts between the Missouri and the Rockies. The 
trouble apparently first arose over the shooting of 
certain Indian horse-thieves by an army patrol sta- 
tioned at the Upper Platte Bridge. The result was 
an onslaught upon all the travelled routes across 
the Plains, and the reduction of Fort Laramie to a 
condition only less rigorous than an actual siege. 
In the Summer of 1857 ^^ expedition, formed of 
troops from Leavenworth and Laramie, under Colo- 
nel Sumner, First Dragoons, was organized to op- 
erate against these raiding Cheyennes. Camp was 
made near Fort Saint Vrain, on the South Platte, 
In July, everything being in readiness, the little col- 
umn marched to the Smoky Hill branch of the 
Kansas River. Here the Cheyennes were met, 
gathered beside a small lake, which they believed 
enchanted, so that if they dipped their hands in the 
water they became invulnerable. Under this im- 
pression they attacked the troops with firmness, 
chanting their war-songs as they advanced. But the 
dragoons charged with sabres, killing and wounding 
a large number, and putting the remainder to flight. 
From this point Sumner made a hasty march to 

[230] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

the relief of Bent's Fort, on the Arkansas; he ar- 
rived just in time to prevent the scheming Arapa- 
hoes from killing all the whites there and taking 
possession of the property. Sumner's expedition 
completely intimidated the Cheyennes, and for the 
time being checked the outrages along the border. 

Further Efforts to Pacify the Indians 

In September, Major Lynde with two compa- 
nies of the Seventh Infantry arrived at Fort Lara- 
mie, and wintered there, Major Hoi^fman, with his 
command of the Sixth, departing on the long march 
for Leavenworth. The next summer, 1858, Major 
Sedgwick, with four more companies of the Sev- 
enth, and headquarters, stafi, and band, came across 
the Plains bound for Utah. Learning at Pacific 
Springs that the Mormon difficulty had been set- 
tled, the column was turned back eastward, and a 
military post established at the junction of the two 
forks of the Kansas River. First called Camp Cen- 
tre, it became later the famous Fort Riley. 

In 1859 W. W. Bent, an old-time plainsman, 
favorably known to all the tribes, was appointed 
Indian Agent for the Upper Arkansas. It was 
largely his influence that kept the surrounding re- 
gions comparatively peaceable for the next two 
years. The Kiowas and Comanches had by this 
time been driven from Texas, and now permanently 
occupied the country lying between the Arkan- 
sas and the Canadian. They numbered about 2,500 
warriors, and assumed so threatening an attitude 

[231] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

that posts were established at the mouth of Pawnee 
Fork, and near the site of Bent's Fort, for their bet- 
ter control. The first was named Fort Earned, and 
the second Fort Wise ; the latter afterward became 
Fort Lyon. 



[232] 



CHAPTER X 

THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS— DURING THE 
CIVIL WAR 

An Alliance of Indian Tribes 

THE necessities arising from the outbreaking 
of war between the North and the South 
caused the almost total withdrawal of regular troops 
from the Plains, leaving at some posts barely a cor- 
poral's guard as protection to Government proper- 
ty. The Indian tribes, uneasy before, were quick to 
discover their opportunity for outbreak, and a vast 
offensive alliance, involving nearly all the fighting 
tribes of the Great Plains, was rapidly effected. 
Scarcely had the great struggle for the preservation 
of the nation begun before the savages burst forth 
in terrible ferocity along the Western trails, confi- 
dent they could now murder and rob without danger 
of immediate punishment. Unable to spare regular 
troops with which to combat this sudden Indian 
uprising, the Government despatched to the Plains 
certain hastily organized regiments of volunteers 
which had been destined for the main army, while 
the authorities of Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado 
mustered local organizations for the defence of 
their own borders. By this time the two former 
communities had attained to a considerable popula- 
tion, but grouped in the more eastern counties and 
along the principal water-courses; the Plains 

[233] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

proper, being considered totally unfit for agricul- 
ture, remained in original desolation. In Colorado 
a comparatively large population had suddenly 
sprung up as a result of valuable gold discoveries 
made in 1858. It was of the restless, adventurous 
frontier type, admirably adapted to the exigencies 
of Indian campaigning. The volunteer organiza- 
tions thus utilized for the protection of the border 
found ample work confronting them, and saw much 
of hardship and fighting. 

Some Small Successes of the Soldiers 

In 1862 the Second Colorado, under Colonel 
Leavenworth, was the only force operating along 
the Arkansas. It had headquarters at Fort Lyon, 
formerly Fort Wise, and was kept exceedingly 
busy by the constant depredations of raiding par- 
ties of Comanches and Kiowas. In January, 1863, 
the First Colorado Cavalry, Colonel Chivington, 
arrived at this post, and the Second Colorado 
marched east to Forts Earned and Leavenworth for 
the better protection of the Santa Fe Trail. In July 
this force met an invasion of Texans at Cabin Creek, 
and, after a sharp fight, in which the enemy lost 
forty killed and wounded, drove the invaders back 
across the Kansas border. The First Cavalry now 
became the only armed force in the country north 
of Fort Garland, and found plenty to do. Actual 
field work, however, did not begin until 1864, when 
the Indians made a raid on a herd of commissary 

[234] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

cattle, running off one hundred and seventy-five 
head from a point forty miles southeast of Denver. 

Lieutenant Ayre with a detachment followed, 
and recovered twenty; one of his men was wounded. 
Returning to the post for subsistence, the Lieuten- 
ant, with one hundred troopers and two Howitzers, 
started again on the trail, and proceeded east al- 
most to Fort Earned. Near the head of the Re- 
publican and Smoky Hill Forks he ran into a band 
of four hundred Cheyennes, and a desperate fight 
ensued. The Indians charged the howitzers, rush- 
ing to the belching muzzles, and falling dead with- 
in reach of the gunners. About thirty were killed, 
including the chief, the whites retiring victorious. 
The same month, at Kiowa Creek, a similar inci- 
dent occurred, the Indian horse-thieves being this 
time pursued vigorously by Lieutenant Clark Dunn, 
with twenty troopers. His force attacked fifty 
Cheyennes, but being armed only with revolvers 
and sabres, it inflicted but little damage. Near the 
junction of the South Platte, Major Downing, pur- 
suing a third raiding party, surprised a fortified 
Indian camp, killed twenty-five, destroyed the vil- 
lage, and captured a hundred horses. Only one sol- 
dier was killed in this aflfair. 

But in spite of these small successes, repeated 
and horrible outrages increased. In June came the 
murder of the Hungate family, and the stampede of 
stock from the settlements along Box Elder Creek, 
within a few miles of Denver. The Indians escaped. 

[235] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

In July a general Indian council was held at Paw- 
nee Fork, participated in by Cheyennes, Arapahoes, 
Comanches, Apaches, and Kiowas. Promises 
made at this time to the Indian agent were almost 
immediately broken. Even while returning from 
the peace council a band of Kiowas stampeded all 
the stock at Fort Earned, and a few days later the 
Arapahoes made a raid on the settlers along the 
river. The situation was becoming most critical; 
not more than six weeks' supply of food was left 
in the Territory; mail communication with the 
East was entirely suspended, messengers having 
been killed, and the letters scattered to the winds. 
Only one station was left standing for a distance 
of one hundred and twenty miles, and for four 
hundred miles the freighting wagons durst not brave 
the trail. 

Outrages by Indians and by Colonel Chivington 

In Spite of the danger hovering over every mile 
of the way, this year witnessed an immense emigra- 
tion to the Pacific. Nineteen thousand en route are 
reported to have passed Fort Laramie. That a great 
many were killed on the way is beyond question, 
although no records were preserved. Many trains 
reported having been attacked, and some of the emi- 
grants were obliged to desert their goods and cattle. 
Of settlers residing within the limits of Colorado 
more than two hundred were made victims. So 
bold became the Indian raiders that they organ- 
ized for simultaneous attack on exposed settlements 

[236] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

miles apart. For thirty days no mails reached Den- 
ver, and no stages, or freighting trains moved in 
Colorado. Then newly organized militia, under 
General Teller, took the field and patrolled the 
road between Denver and Julesburg, leaving the 
First Cavalry to operate along the Arkansas. Be- 
yond thus opening up communication with the East 
comparatively little was accomplished by either 
force, time being frittered away in councils with 
various small bands, some of whom surrendered. 
One of these, composed of 400 Arapahoes and Chey- 
ennes, was sent to Sand Creek by the Indian agent, 
practically as prisoners. Here, without any known 
provocation, on November 27, Colonel Chiving- 
ton, with nine hundred men of the First Cavalry, 
made a ferocious attack, killing 131 men, women, 
and children, with a loss to the soldiers of fifty 
killed and wounded. No justification of this act 
of treachery has ever been advanced. The number 
of troops now in the field held eastern Colorado 
peaceful until the close of the Civil War. 

Engagements with Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes 

Farther to the north the Sioux broke into re- 
bellion as soon as the regular troops were with- 
drawn from their territory, and were assisted in 
their raids by Cheyennes and Pawnees. Fort Lara- 
mie and the Black Hills became the more promi- 
nent storm centres. The first volunteer forces at 
Laramie were two troops Fourth Iowa Cavalry, 
one Sixth Ohio Cavalry, and one company Eighth 

[237] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Kansas Infantry. There were constant changes, 
however, the First and Eleventh Ohio Cavalry, the 
Seventh Iowa and the Sixth Michigan all seeing 
service at this exposed post. The first outbreak of 
the Sioux swept the border settlements of Minne- 
sota in 1862, and was immediately followed by a 
general uprising throughout the country of the 
northern and central Plains. With the exception of 
those few inhabitants gathered about the Overland 
stage stations, there were not many permanent set- 
tlements at this date beyond the eastern Platte or 
along the valley of the Missouri. But the stage 
lines and freighting caravans suffered greatly, and 
murder and robbery marked every mile of the 
Trail. The year 1864 ^^^ the bloodiest of the pe- 
riod. General Sully, with 3,000 men, led an expe- 
dition directly into the Sioux country, and, at Deer 
Stand, closed in battle with 15,000 warriors. The 
Indians were defeated, losing 585 braves. Farther 
west, in the Bad Lands, Sully fought them again, 
and defeated them, but was unable to discover and 
destroy their villages. 

While this force was still operating in Dakota, 
the Arapahoes were engaged in deadly work to the 
south and west of Laramie, attacking emigrant 
trains, and on several occasions burning alive pris- 
oners bound to their wagon wheels. Finally the 
Sioux, breaking away before Sully's determined 
advance, swept down through the Black Hills to 
the Powder River, and united with their allies, 
the Cheyennes. Several fierce but small engage- 

[238] 




INDIANS EXECUTING A WAR DANCE 
( Stockaded Fort in the Background ) 




n 



AN INDIAN ENCAMPMENT 



INDIAN LIFE ON THE GREAT PLAINS 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

ments occurred between their raiding parties and 
detachments of troops from the Seventh Iowa 
Cavalry, in the neighborhood of Julesburg. Men 
of the Eleventh Ohio were also engaged, and gave 
a good account of themselves, but these minor 
fights did not serve to check the continued depreda- 
tions of the savages. 

Indians Sue for Peace 

Several expeditions were organized, the most 
important being that under command of General 
Connor, for the purpose of clearing the road to 
Montana, via the Powder and Big Horn Rivers. He 
had with him a considerable force, consisting of 
detachments from the Sixth and Seventh Michigan 
Cavalry, two hundred Pawnee and Omaha scouts, 
and a battery of the Second Missouri Artillery. The 
column advanced to the head of the Tongue River 
without encountering any hostiles, and the expedi- 
tion finally degenerated into a mere hunt after wild 
game, in which the officers found much pleasure. 
Yet this, with other movements and the concentra- 
tion of troops, now made possible by the ending of 
the Civil War, told the chiefs of the Sioux nation, 
the impossibility of longer safely continuing upon 
the warpath. In October Swift Bear's band came 
in to Laramie suing for peace, and reported that 
others were ready to follow him. Peace Commis- 
sioners were appointed, and met in council with the 
representatives of the various Sioux tribes. Satis- 
factory terms were agreed upon, and the Cheyennes 

[239] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

and Arapahoes joined with the majority of the 
Sioux in a treaty of peace. Red Cloud, chief of the 
Ogallala Sioux, refused to present himself at this 
conference, and continued to express his dissat- 
is faction and hostility. In the next few months his 
following greatly increased, and he became suffi- 
ciently powerful to inaugurate another serious 
outbreak. 

Praise for the Fighters of the Indians 

The close of the war between the States caused 
the mustering out of the volunteer troops, and the 
despatching once more of regulars to the frontier 
for the purpose of garrisoning the scattered posts. 
No words can fitly honor the services rendered to 
the West by the volunteer organizations then dis- 
banded. Inspired by patriotism, the men had of- 
fered themselves to the Government to help to save 
the nation from dismemberment. They burned 
with eagerness to be despatched to the front to bat- 
tle against those forces arrayed in arms against their 
country. Instead, they were sent to the Indian- 
raided frontier, and assigned to work of the most 
disagreeable character. They were called upon to 
suffer hardships, wounds, and death in profitless In- 
dian campaigning; to garrison isolated posts, and 
to guard long lines of stage routes through barren 
Plains. Without hope of honor, and without the 
inspiration which arises from opportunities for 
great achievements, their colors undecorated with 
the names of noble battlefields, their service ob- 

[240] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

scure and known only to a few, these commands 
performed the duty given them with patience and 
fidelity. They marched and fought, they sufifered 
and died, they braved the fiery sun of midsummer 
on arid Plains, the bitter storms of winter amid the 
mountains. To their great sacrifice the West owes 
much gratitude, and the nation may well be proud 
of such worthy sons. 



[241] 



CHAPTER XI 

THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS— MASSACRE AT 
FORT PHILIP KEARNEY 

The Sioux Dissatisfied with the Treaty of Peace 

THE mass of the Sioux warriors were never 
satisfied with that treaty which a few minor 
chiefs had signed at Fort Laramie. Under the 
leadership of Red Cloud, one of the greatest Indians 
the Plains have produced, this opposition grew war- 
like and threatening. A mistake of the Gov- 
ernment at about this time tended to give these 
malcontents courage and to swell their ranks. This 
was the abandoning and dismantling of the military 
posts of Fort Reno, Fort Philip Kearney, and Fort 
C. F. Smith on the east side of the Big Horn Moun- 
tains. The Sioux were quick to construe this re- 
treat as exhibiting fear of their prowess, and the 
result was a long, distressing struggle which did not 
reach its conclusion until 1870. 

Colonel Carrington Builds Fort Philip Kearney 

The story of Fort Philip Kearney during the 
two years it remained garrisoned is one of the most 
tragic in American history. Colonel Henry B. 
Carrington was the officer selected to build this fort 
in the far wilderness. With a little army of seven 
hundred men, five hundred of whom were raw re- 
cruits, four pieces of artillery, and two hundred and 

[242] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

twenty-six wagons, he left Fort Kearney, Nebraska, 
May 19, 1866. Trouble with the Indians was not 
anticipated, as the peace treaty had already been 
duly signed. Wives and children of several of the 
officers accompanied the column, riding in ambu- 
lances, so satisfied were those in authority that they 
were going upon a peaceful mission. The march 
was slow, the distance great — more than six hun- 
dred miles to Fort Reno, at the crossing of the Pow- 
der River. Nearly all this distance the column 
passed through the Sioux country, yet saw no hos- 
tile Indian, although it is probable their every step 
was spied upon. On the twenty-eighth of June they 
arrived at Fort Reno. 

By this time the Indians, no longer having any 
doubt as to their purpose, began annoying the 
troops, obstructing their progress, and endeavoring 
to stampede their stock. Thus discovering the 
Sioux in warlike mood, Carrington, unwilling to 
abandon Fort Reno, restockaded the fort, and gar- 
risoned it from his command. Then, accompanied 
by a force now numbering barely five hundred, he 
pushed forward into the farther wilderness. He se- 
lected as a site for the new fort a spot on the banks 
of Big Piney Creek, an affluent of Powder River, 
about four miles from the Big Horn Range, with 
Cloud Peak towering above it nine thousand feet 
into the air. This was on July 13, 1866. The men 
fell promptly to work, cutting trees, preparing the 
ground, and placing timbers in position, all anxious 
to have the labor completed before the winter shut 

[243] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

down upon them. This labor was carried forward 
under the utmost difficulty, and in an atmosphere of 
constant danger. Apparently they were from the 
very first surrounded by hostile savages; the wood- 
choppers, the wood trains, the cattle, had to be pro- 
tected constantly by armed guards. Scarcely a day 
passed without a death by violence. During the 
first six months of occupancy the Indians killed one 
hundred and fifty-four persons — soldiers and civil- 
ians, — wounded twenty more, and captured nearly 
seven hundred animals. Early in October two con- 
tract surgeons, together with Lieutenant Grum- 
mond and his young bride and an escort of eight 
men arrived. As they reached the main gate they 
had to wait the passage of a wagon bearing the 
scalped and mutilated body of a soldier just killed. 
It was a strange welcome to the young wife, almost 
prophetic of another tragedy only two months 
away. 

Siege of the Fort 

By the thirty-first of October the troops were 
fairly under cover, although the post was never 
fully completed. The last log, however, was placed 
in the stockade, and the garrison flag floated at the 
apex of the staff. From that moment the troops 
within the shelter of those log walls were in a state 
of siege. The Indians fairly swarmed about, mak- 
ing several actual attacks in force, while every sup- 
ply train from the east had to fight its way through. 
Twice the savages captured the post herd, grazing 
under guard almost within rifle-shot of the stockade. 

[244] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

The wood train was still sent out seven miles to 
Piney Island, but seldom returned without an at- 
tack. A lookout was kept stationed on Pilot Hill, 
where he could signal the garrison for help on such 
occasions. In this way a relief column was in- 
stantly despatched to assist the wagons to get in. 

On the sixth of December such an attack was 
made on the wood train when only two miles from 
the fort, and Captain W. J. Fetterman was de- 
spatched with forty mounted men to its relief, while 
Colonel Carrington, with another small command, 
sought to outflank the savages. Fetterman drove 
the Indians from the train, and pursued them four 
miles, when, being reinforced, they suddenly turned 
and charged down upon him. Taken by surprise, a 
part of the command gave way, leaving Fetterman, 
Captain Brown, and Lieutenant Wands, with only 
fourteen men, to face the advancing warriors. This 
was done, however, until Carrington came up, but 
cost the lives of Lieutenant Bingham and Sergeant 
Bowers. By this time Red Cloud himself was in 
command of the allied Sioux, and the little garrison 
was permitted no rest. 

Captain Fetterman Goes to Rescue a Wood Train 

Only two weeks later, December 21, a similar 
alarm was signalled in from Pilot Hill. A train 
numbering ninety men, all armed, had been sent out 
after more lumber. Suddenly the watchers of the 
fort read the signalled message, " Many Indians on 
wood road ; train corralled and fighting." This was 

[245] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

at eleven o'clock. Without delay eighty men were 
despatched to the rescue, and, at his own request, 
Captain Fetterman was put in command. Two 
other officers. Captain Brown and Lieutenant 
Grummond, accompanied the detachment as volun- 
teers, and two frontiersmen, Fisher and Wheatley, 
who were armed with the recently invented Henry 
repeating rifle, requested permission to go along. 
About fifty of the soldiers carried Spencer repeat- 
ing carbines, the remainder being armed with 
Springfield muzzle-loading rifles. 

There has been much controversy over Carring- 
ton's orders to Fetterman on his leaving the fort, 
the contention being that the ardor of the latter of- 
ficer caused him to advance much farther than his 
instructions warranted. Fetterman's scorn of the 
Indians was well known, he having boasted that 
with eighty men he could ride through the whole 
Sioux nation. He now had his eighty men, and 
the chance had come. On this occasion it would 
seem that his orders were explicit, "on no account 
to pursue the Indians beyond Lodge Tree Ridge." 
With these words of caution yet ringing in his ears 
Captain Fetterman led his little command forward 
upon the Montana Road, crossed Big Piney Creek, 
and passed to the southwest of Lodge Tree Ridge. 
His purpose was evidently to cut of? the Indians 
who were still attacking the corralled wagon train. 
But as he approached the foot-hills other Indians 
suddenly appeared on his front and flank, and he 
promptly swung his men forward up the hill to the 

[246] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

ridge. Just before twelve o'clock his skirmishers 
occupied the crest. 

All this could be plainly seen from the fort. 
Shortly after, the Indians withdrew from their at- 
tack on the wood train, and at about the same time 
Fetterman's men, advancing as skirmishers, swept 
over the apex of the ridge and disappeared from 
view. Some scattered firing was heard, which 
shortly developed into a steady, continuous roar of 
rifles. Every listening man realized that desperate, 
savage fighting was going on out yonder in Peno 
Creek Valley. Colonel Carrington despatched As- 
sistant Surgeon Hines with one man to the wood 
train, which was already starting to move in toward 
the fort. If his professional services were not needed 
there, Hines was instructed to endeavor to reach 
Fetterman, The two rode at full speed, passed the 
train, and headed their horses straight for Peno 
Creek. But Lodge Trail Ridge was black with In- 
dians, and, finding it impossible to get through, the 
two dashed back to the fort with the report of what 
they had seen. 

Fetterman and his Band Slain 

Carrington did not hesitate. Leaving barely 
soldiers enough to defend the post, he sent Captain 
Ten Eyck forward to the rescue with seventy- 
six men, mounted on every horse or mule to be 
found. Hines went with Ten Eyck, and the little 
command dashed straight for the ridge. Still 
afraid he had not sent out a sufficient force. Colonel 

[247I 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Carrington hastily mustered forty more men, and 
sent them forward after Ten Eyck on the run. Only 
one hundred and nineteen were now left to man the 
walls of the fort and defend it in case of attack. 
As Ten Eyck pushed on, the sound of shots in the 
valley beyond the ridge died entirely away; and, 
when, at about one o'clock, his line of battle finally 
reached the summit, no sound reached them but the 
yelling of the savages. There was an inch or two of 
snow on the hills, and footprints were plainly visi- 
ble showing where Fetterman's men had gone down 
into the valley. But nothing could be seen of them 
now. The entire valley seemed filled with warriors, 
crazed with victory, brandishing their weapons, and 
yelling defiance. Taunting and cursing, they dared 
the little band to come down. But Ten Eyck durst 
not move, and finally the Indian mass in his front 
began to move away, possibly fearing a flank at- 
tack from the train guard. 

Cautiously, and realizing that two thousand In- 
dians were still somewhere in his front. Ten Eyck 
swung his little command forward in line of battle 
down the slope. Half a mile in advance they 
mounted a small ridge which had obstructed their 
view, and near which the greater number of Indians 
had lately been massed. As they cleared its summit 
they came upon a sickening sight. Lying in a 
space less than fifty feet square, were the bodies of 
Captains Fetterman and Brown, with sixty-five en- 
listed men. They presented all the nameless horrors 
of Indian mutilation. But to these gallant com- 

[248] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

rades of the relief force gazing down helplessly 
upon the awful scene of carnage, the horror was in- 
tensified by the evidence that this had been mas- 
sacre, not battle. Nothing told of struggle, there 
were no signs of protracted defence; on the ground 
lay only five or six empty cartridge shells. What 
had really happened came home to those men of the 
relief column instantly, — Fetterman had started 
forth with insufficient ammunition, and with empty 
guns and empty cartridge belts, his men had been 
ridden down by the frenzied warriors, shot, speared 
and clubbed to death. Officers and men went down 
together struggling hopelessly to the last. 

Although Lieutenant Grummond, several of the 
enlisted men, and the two civilians were not among 
those found lying in this ring of death. Captain 
Ten Eyck did not think it advisable to push his 
small force any farther forward. The short De- 
cember day was already beginning to wane, and a 
courier was hastily despatched to the fort with the 
news, and a request for wagons in which to bring in 
the dead bodies. Two were sent, and forty-nine of 
the dead, all they would accommodate, placed upon 
them, and after dark the relief column, with their 
ghastly charge, reached the safety of the stockade. 
The next morning they found the others. A quar- 
ter of a mile in advance of where Fetterman had 
died were the bodies of Lieutenant Grummond and 
the missing soldiers. But they had evidently fallen 
after fighting desperately. All about them were 
dead ponies and patches of blood crimsoning the 

[249] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

snow, while the ground was strewn with empty 
cartridge shells. Fisher and Wheatley were dis- 
covered together, a short distance away from the 
others, where they had taken shelter behind a pile 
of rocks. The frontiersmen had sold their lives 
dearly, for there were sixty gouts of blood, and ten 
dead Indian ponies within rifle shot of their posi- 
tion, while about them lay more than fifty emptied 
cartridge shells. 

Little by little the facts of this terrible event 
came out by examination of the field and the bodies 
of the dead. Of all those men who fell in mass to- 
gether only four, beside the two officers, had been 
struck by bullets. Helpless to defend themselves 
against the multitude of their enemies they had been 
killed by arrows, tomahawks, or spears, their last 
moments spent in torture. Brown and Fetterman 
were lying side by side, each with a bullet wound 
in the left temple. These had been fired so closely 
that the faces were burned and blackened with pow- 
der. Time and again both had sworn to die rather 
than be taken alive, and it is probable that in that 
moment of extremity they had kept their vows. It 
was made clear that the men had fought until their 
ammunition was exhausted, and then had either 
been ordered to retreat, or had started toward the 
fort without orders. All the dead cavalry horses 
lay with heads toward the fort. A retreat under 
such conditions meant annihilation. Grummond 
and his men probably fell in a heroic effort to cover 

[250] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

the retreat. This, at least, seems to be the story of 
the field. 

Colonel Carrington's March in a Blizzard 

It was now midwinter, and the depleted garri- 
son were shut up tightly within the stockade. Yet 
even under such conditions the War Department 
ordered Colonel Carrington to proceed to Fort Cas- 
par. He was to be relieved of the command at 
Kearney by his Lieutenant-colonel, with four com- 
panies of the Eighteenth Infantry. The weather 
was severe, the snow banked almost to the top of 
the stockade, but, in the face of a blizzard, the 
march began. With Colonel Carrington were his 
wife and children, while Mrs. Grummond bore 
with her the remains of her husband. It was a jour- 
ney of horror, during which the entire party nar- 
rowly escaped freezing to death. More than half 
the sixty-five composing the company were severely 
frost-bitten; three amputations and one death re- 
sulted from this unnecessary and cruel order. Thus 
ended this awful tragedy; less than a year later, al- 
most on the same spot, came the opportunity for re- 
venge. 



[251] 



CHAPTER XII 

THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS— THIRTY-TWO 
AGAINST THREE THOUSAND 

Captain Powell Escorts a Squad of Wood-Cutters 

THE killing of Fetterman's command gave 
great prestige to Red Cloud, and thousands 
of braves hastened to join him. More closely than 
ever did the rejoicing warriors invest Fort Kearney. 
Even through the bitter winter they continued to 
harass the garrison, and with the coming of spring 
every line of communication was sundered. When 
summer arrived, Red Cloud determined on open 
war and the razing of the fort to the ground. For 
this purpose he gathered together no less than three 
thousand warriors, the pick of all the Sioux fight- 
ing men. His plan was to make a direct attack 
August I, 1867; in the meantime his skirmishing 
parties kept the soldiers so closely invested that they 
could learn little regarding his movements. Cir- 
cumstances, however, compelled the wily old Chief 
to act earlier, and in the open. On the thirty-first 
of July a party of civilian wood-cutters were sent 
out from the fort to Piney Island, seven miles dis- 
tant. They had with them fourteen wagons, and 
were guarded by Company C, Twenty-Seventh In- 
fantry, numbering fifty-one men, the officers being 

[252] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

Captain James Powell, and Lieutenant John C. 
Jenness. The trip out was made without incident, 
but upon arriving there the civilian contractor di- 
vided his squad of wood-cutters, so that Powell, in 
order to protect them while at work, was compelled 
to send a portion of his small guarding force with 
each party. A non-commissioned officer, with 
twelve men, was selected to care for those in 
the woods; thirteen men, under another non-com- 
missioned officer, were detailed to escort the 
wagons. With the remaining twenty-six men and 
his lieutenant, Powell established headquarters near 
the centre of a level plain, perhaps a thousand 
yards across, and surrounded by low hills. 

In hauling cord-wood only the running-gear of 
the wagons was used, and now, as the cutters fell 
promptly to work, the wagon boxes were removed. 
Powell at once had them arranged in the form of 
a wide oval in the very centre of this open Plain. 
They were deep, sufficiently so to conceal anyone 
lying in them. Loop-holes for rifle firing were 
made, and at the two ends of the oval two complete 
wagons were posted, so arranged as to break the 
force of a charge of horsemen. The space between 
these wagon boxes was packed with logs and sacks 
of grain, thus making a strong defence. Company 
C had just had issued to them the new Allen model 
of the Springfield breech-loading rifle, and their 
stock of ammunition was ample for all purposes. 

Red Cloud, his plans nearly completed for an 
attack on the fort, determined that he would now 

[253] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

begin by wiping out this detachment guarding the 
wood-cutters. He had no reason to suppose this 
would be a difficult operation. Powell's men were 
on the ground two days, however, before the In- 
dians were prepared to commence their attack upon 
him. On the second of August, about nine in the 
morning, full two hundred braves dashed suddenly 
down upon the mule herd. The herders fought 
with determination, but finally lost their animals. 
At the same time five hundred other Indians made 
a fierce attack upon the wood train. The wood- 
cutters and their guard were driven back, abandon- 
ing their loads, four of the choppers being killed. 
Powell made a sortie from his improvised fort and 
drew the Indian fire, thus giving the men of the 
wood train, as well as the herders, an opportunity 
for escape; but he was driven back to the shelter 
of the corral. Finding the others were beyond 
reach, the savages now turned all their attention 
upon Powell. 

Rout of Red Cloud's Warriors 

Before the scattered bands could be concen- 
trated, Powell was ready. For the defence of the 
corral he had with him his lieutenant, twenty-six 
enlisted men, and four civilians, thirty-two in all. 
The few moments permitted for preparation were 
utilized to their fullest extent. The day previous 
they had received a wagonload of clothing and 
blankets. Not yet unbaled, this clothing was used 
to strengthen weak places in the corral, while the 

[254] 




RED CLOUD 

CHIEF OF THE OGALLA SIOUX 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

blankets were spread over the wagon boxes the bet- 
ter to conceal the riflemen. Boxes of extra ammuni- 
tion were opened and placed in easy reach; revol- 
vers, axes, hatchets were scattered wherever they 
might prove most convenient, and pails filled with 
water for instant use in case of fire. Then, expect- 
ing to die, but determined to fight to the very last 
shot, the men took their places in the wagon boxes, 
their anxious eyes peering forth through the loop- 
holes. 

They had not long to wait. Suddenly the hill- 
sides and valleys rang with the exultant war-whoops 
of more than two thousand warriors, and five hun- 
dred mounted Cheyennes and Arapahoes, their ri- 
fles in hand, swept out of the concealing woods, 
less than half a mile distant, and charged straight 
at that silent corral. No chief or brave dreamed 
such onslaught could fail. In utter contempt of the 
few whites lying behind those weak defences in the 
open Plain, they dashed recklessly forward, yelling 
their war cries. Half the distance was covered, and 
the corral remained grimly silent, exhibiting no 
sign of life. Fifty yards farther the quirt-lashed 
ponies leaped, and then, thirty rifles were flaming 
in their faces. Forsyth writes: 

" On dash the warriors, though death shrieks now mingle 
with their war cries, and warriors and horses go down together; 
still the onrushing mass never hesitates or halts in its mad 
whirl, and recklessly sweeps over the fallen warriors as it 
dashes onward in a vain endeavor to hurl its weight on the 
little fire-vomiting corral, but so rapid and destructive is its fire 
that, before they are within ten yards of it, the horses recoil. 

[255] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

In vain do the warriors sweep out and surround it. From every 
segment of the circle rifles send forth death-dealing bullets, and 
not for an instant does the fire slacken or cease." 

In desperate effort the savages pour in a galling 
fire, but to no effect. The roar of the defending 
rifles ceases not, and with cries of rage the Indians 
break and turn. Even as they flee wildly for the 
woods the rifles of the corral bring them down, dot- 
ting the open with men and horses. 

The result of this charge left the Indians puz- 
zled and exasperated, and the little garrison confi- 
dent and full of hope. Three men, including 
Lieutenant Jenness, had been killed, but the hand- 
ful left hastily repaired their defences, reloaded 
their spare guns, and lay down to wait. To Red 
Cloud and his warriors that corral hid a mystery — 
how could those few white men pour in such an 
endless fire? They knew nothing then of the pow- 
ers of the breech-loading Springfield, or of those 
extra rifles lying beside each soldier, ready to be 
snatched up in an instant. But they were not yet 
defeated; more determined than ever to wipe this 
white detachment from the earth, eager to revenge 
their dead, the whole force prepared to advance on 
foot, confident still of crushing the defenders of the 
corral by sheer force of numbers. Having stripped 
themselves of everything but arms and ammunition, 
seven hundred warriors stole forward under cover 
until they were within long range distance of the 
corral. Spreading out so as completely to surround 

[256] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

this primitive fort, they opened a terrific fire from 
all sides. Crouching low in the shelter of the wagon 
boxes, the soldiers refused to reply, the corral re- 
maining grimly silent. 

Suddenly, all the Indians left alive, nearly three 
thousand in number, led in person by a nephew of 
Red Cloud, sprang to their feet, and with wild 
yells, dashed headlong forward. No sooner were 
they within short rifle range than the corral blazed 
again, the hidden men actually pouring bullets into 
the massed hordes, the steady fire never slackening 
for an instant. Flesh and blood could not stand 
such awful strain. Again and again the enraged 
braves swarmed forward, and once only, their des- 
perate advance reached within a few feet of the 
corral; but the deadly fire withered them, and they 
were actually blown back from the flaming muzzles 
of the guns. Utterly demoralized and panic-stricken, 
the great mass broke, and fled beyond range. 
In the safety of the woods the chiefs rallied their 
braves, and led them forth again and again to the 
attack. Six times in three hours those warriors 
dashed forward, and were hurled back before the 
ceaseless rifles. The ground about the corral was 
ringed with Indians slain. Close beside the wagon 
boxes they were piled in heaps, and farther away 
they were scattered over the Plain. Unknown to 
those gallant defenders, whose ammunition was by 
now running low, the end had come, their fierce 
assailants had had enough of slaughter. 

[257] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

A Rescue Party from the Fort 

Convinced that further attack was useless, be- 
lieving that some horrible magic, some " bad medi- 
cine," protected those hidden white men, Red 
Cloud's sole remaining object was the removal of 
the Indian dead. To accomplish this his skirmish- 
ers went forward again, pouring a heavy fire into 
the corral. Under this cover, and protected by 
stout shields of buffalo-hide, warriors crept for- 
ward, attaching lariats to the bodies, and thus 
drawing them away. In this manner they suc- 
ceeded in recovering the larger number, but had 
not completed the task, when suddenly a shell burst 
in their midst, and a rescuing party from the fort 
appeared in the open. The Indians at once retired. 

Estimate of the Slaughter 

This defence of thirty-two men, poorly pro- 
tected by entrenchments, against a well-armed force 
of three thousand is almost without parallel in his- 
tory. Within the corral only three men were killed 
and two wounded. Not until a year after the fight 
was the Indian loss definitely ascertained, and then 
they acknowledged their killed and wounded to 
have been one thousand, one hundred and thirty- 
seven. This means that each man in the corral had 
stricken down at least thirty-six Indians. One of 
the frontiersmen told Colonel Dodge that he had 
kept eight guns hot to the hand for three hours. 
Almost all the water placed in the wagon boxes 
for emergencies of fire, was used to cool the heated 

[258] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

guns. The tops of the wagon boxes were literally 
torn to pieces by the Indian bullets, but the men, 
lying low, were protected by gunny-sacks of corn 
placed on edge two deep on the inside of every box. 
At the point where the four sacks met was a two- 
inch auger hole through which the rifles were 
sighted. Two men defended each wagon box. 

The next fall a new treaty was entered into with 
the Indians, and the post at Fort Kearney, which 
had witnessed such a stormy life, was abandoned, 
the troops being withdrawn. The savages at once 
burned it to the ground, and it was never reoccu- 
pied. But even this concession — almost open sur- 
render — on the part of the Government failed to 
end the hostility of the Cheyennes and Sioux. 



C259] 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS— THE FIGHT ON 
THE ARICKAREE 

The Tribes Oppose the Building of the Railroad 

THE abandonment of forts, and the signing of 
treaties, brought no real end to hostilities on 
the Plains. Wider and wider the trouble seemed 
to spread, and it soon became evident that a de- 
fensive alliance existed between the fighting tribes 
east of the Rocky Mountains, which could be dis- 
solved only by actual war. The necessity of strik- 
ing hard blows and the campaigning over a broad 
section of territory became imperative. The build- 
ing of the Union Pacific Railroad, now well under 
way, was the deep underlying cause for this fierce 
fighting spirit which had taken possession of the 
warriors of the Plains. They were making their last 
stand before the advance of civilization, and it was 
a desperate and bloody one. 

Outrages 

Immediately after the withdrawal of troops 
from the abandoned northern forts, bands 
of Sioux began raiding the line of railroad under 
construction, and overran the country southward 
into Colorado. They stirred the Arapahoes and 

[260] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

Southern Cheyennes into uniting with them, and 
thus spread destruction and death over a wide ex- 
panse. A few of the more atrocious deeds commit- 
ted at this time will prove the justification of the 
army campaign which followed. August 4, two 
hundred Cheyennes, four Arapahoes, and twenty 
Sioux started out from Pawnee Fork. A few days 
later they were at a small settlement on the Saline, 
being kindly received; and they repaid that kind- 
ness with a treacherous attack. Two white men 
were killed, and several women captured and in- 
humanly treated. From here they crossed to the 
Solomon, destroyed the houses, killed thirteen men, 
and ravished all the women. The same horrors 
were continued along the sparse settlements of the 
Republican; but before news could be carried to 
Fort Harker, the nearest post, the band broke up 
and disappeared. The pursuing troops had a fight 
with the rear guard and rescued a few captive 
children. 

Meanwhile the Governors of both Colorado and 
Kansas were reporting other outrages to the Wash- 
ington authorities. Both threatened to call out 
State troops to defend their people. The Indians 
attacked settlements within twelve miles of Den- 
ver; they captured and burned a train at Pawnee 
Fork, killing, scalping, and torturing sixteen men; 
they attacked another train at the Cimarron Cross- 
ing, and compelled its abandonment. In one 
month, they killed or captured eighty-four settlers. 
Scarcely a day passed without a fresh story of out- 

[261] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

rage. After laboring in vain for peace, and making 
earnest efforts to induce the tribes to return quietly 
to their reservations, General Sheridan, then com- 
manding the Department of the Missouri, reluct- 
antly decided that nothing excepting war would 
ever end the depredations and massacres. With 
characteristic energy he at once took the field in 
person. His first efforts were to subdue the 
Cheyennes, who were already in open rebellion 
under their two great war-chiefs Roman Nose, and 
Black Kettle. As it chanced, the first grapple came 
with Roman Nose. 

Colonel Forsyth and his Scouts 

One of General Sheridan's earliest acts was to 
detail Colonel George A. ("Sandy") Forsyth, of 
his stafif to the command of a band of scouts, to be 
organized for this special campaign from the ranks 
of well-known frontiersmen. As second in com- 
mand he had Lieutenant Frederick H. Beecher. 
Within five days the fifty volunteers desired were 
enrolled. It was a remarkable body of men, nearly 
all veterans of the Civil War on one side or the 
other, and seasoned Plainsmen. J. H. Mooers was 
the surgeon ; the first sergeant, W. H. H. McCall, 
had commanded a volunteer regiment; and the 
guide was Sharpe Grover, one of the most skilful 
on the Plains. Their equipment was simple but 
sufficient, — a blanket apiece, saddle and bridle, a 
lariat and picket-pin, a canteen, a haversack, a 
butcher knife, a Spencer repeating rifle (seven 

[262] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

shots) , a Colt's revolver (army size) , and a hundred 
and forty rounds of rifle ammunition, and thirty 
rounds of revolver ammunition, per man. The pack 
train was limited to four mules bearing camp ket- 
tles, picks, and shovels, four thousand extra rounds 
of ammunition, some medicine, and extra rations 
of salt and coffee. Each officer and man carried 
seven days' cooked rations in his haversack. 

They Follow a Band of Raiders to the Arickaree 

August 29, 1868, this body of scouts were sent 
forward, with orders to " move across the head- 
waters of Solomon [River] to Beaver Creek, thence 
down that Creek to Fort Wallace." They com- 
pleted this trip without adventure, but on arriving 
at Fort Wallace they heard of an attack made the 
evening before, on a freighter's train thirteen miles 
away, in which two teamsters were killed. Leav- 
ing two of his men sick in the post hospital, Forsyth 
pressed forward swiftly, hoping to strike the trail 
of the Indians. This was picked up, followed all 
one day and part of the next, when it suddenly dis- 
appeared, the savages having scattered. For five 
days the men scouted in a wide circle, hoping to 
discover where the members of the band became 
united once more. In this effort they were finally 
successful, striking the trail again on the north bank 
of the Republican River. From here on it was like 
a beaten road, plainly bearing evidence of the pass- 
age of large numbers. But, in spite of expressed ap- 
prehension on the part of some of the men, Forsyth 

[263] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

and the veterans with him determined to press 
grimly on, anxious for a fight. 

September 15, just before sunset, the little troop 
rode down through a ravine into a valley about 
two miles wide, through which ran a little river 
called the Arickaree. They made camp on the 
south bank. No Indians had been seen, but every 
man in the party believed them close at hand, and 
no precautions were neglected. The bed of the 
river was about one hundred and forty yards wide, 
the banks covered with wild plums, willows, and 
alders. The greater part of this river bed, owing 
to lack of rain at that season, was dry and hard, but 
for four or five yards about an island in the middle 
the water ran slowly with depth not exceeding a 
foot. This island, which must have been entirely 
submerged in time of high water, was now about 
twenty yards wide and sixty yards long, and its 
upper end arose perhaps two feet above the 
water level, being covered with a thick growth of 
stunted bushes; the lower end sloped to the edge 
of the water, and held one single cottonwood tree. 

They are Besieged on an Island 

The night passed quietly, the guards were on the 
alert, and Forsyth made regular rounds to each 
post. In the early dawn, a band, creeping toward 
them through the grass, endeavored to stampede the 
horses, but the men were instantly on their feet, and 
drove back the invaders with a sharp fire. A few 
moments later, the command now drawn up in line 

[264] 




A XIGHT ATTACK UPON THE CAMP 




AN EMIGRANT TRAIN PREPARING FOR DEFENCE 



SCENES CHARACTERISTIC OF INDIAN ATTACKS 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

ready for mounting, Grover suddenly gave a cry 
of surprise and pointed down the valley. It was 
such a sight as few white men have ever witnessed 
and lived to tell of it. In front, on right, and in 
rear the surrounding hills and valleys seemed fairly 
thronged with Indians. They appeared as if by 
magic. To the left alone did there seem oppor- 
tunity for escape, but the very fact that an opening 
was left appeared to Forsyth like a cunning invi- 
tation to ambush. They wanted him to go in that 
direction, and therefore he instantly decided other- 
wise. He saw no place where his little handful 
might hope to stand against that encircling host, 
except upon the island. It was not much of a place 
for defence, but it was the one strategic spot within 
their reach. They must save their ammunition ; all 
else could be abandoned, — medical stores, rations, 
everything, but not that. Pouring a heavy fire into 
the Indians, Forsyth ordered the retreat to the 
island under cover of the smoke. It was accom- 
plished without loss. Protected by a squad of ex- 
pert riflemen, the others crossed the river bed, tied 
their horses to the bushes about the edge of the 
island, and, dividing into squads, while some kept 
up a galling fire, under protection of which the 
rear-guard joined them, the remainder hastily set 
to work digging rifle-pits in the sand. They had 
nothing to do this with but tin cups, tin plates and 
bowie knives, yet they managed to scoop out one 
pit for each man, so placed as to defend the upper, 
higher end of the island. The pit Surgeon Mooers 

[265] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

had dug was a little wider than the others, and, 
after walking about until certain that all his men 
were under cover, Forsyth took refuge there. 

Finding their first effort at surprise had failed, 
the Indians exhibited considerable military skill in 
planning for attack on the entrenched whites. 
Roman Nose, who was in command, had with him 
about a thousand warriors. Their squaws and chil- 
dren were sent back to the bluffs, whence they could 
view the fight without danger; then dismounted 
braves were sent forward to the banks of the river 
bed, and ordered to sweep the exposed island with 
rifle fire. As these banks were higher than the 
island, the Indian riflemen had great advantage, 
pouring in a plunging fire, compelling the whites 
to dig deeper and throw up hasty entrenchments 
to rear as well as front. At first the horses suffered 
most, but as these were shot down the bullets began 
to reach the men. Several of the scouts were killed, 
others wounded, some mortally. Dr. Mooers was 
hit in the forehead, and although he remained alive 
three days, was blind and speechless. Forsyth was 
struck three times, once in the right thigh, once 
in the forehead, and a bullet smashed the bone of 
his leg between knee and ankle. His pain was ex- 
cruciating, but was borne without a murmur, and 
not for an instant did he fail to retain command. 

They Drive Back the Indians 

Realizing the deadliness of this rifle fire, Roman 
Nose determined to charge with his horsemen. 
Forming them, five hundred strong, behind the 

[266] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

cover of a bend in the stream, he led them forward 
in person, mounted upon a magnificent chestnut 
horse. The warriors behind him trotted up the 
river bed in open order, forming eight ranks and 
extending from bank to bank. Naked, except for 
cartridge belt and box, riding saddleless, yelling 
fiercely, their rifles flung forward, the frenzied 
riders dashed on recklessly, being determined to 
sweep that island with one headlong charge. But 
Forsyth and his men were ready. The withdrawal 
of the horsemen around the bend had been sufficient 
warning to these border fighters of what was com- 
ing. Now they waited grimly on their knees, every 
deadly rifle poised, for the single word of command. 
Forsyth, barely able to move, pulled himself to a 
sitting posture, so that he could see over the ridge 
of sand. The thunder of hoofs was almost on them 
when he shouted "Now!" In one awful volley the 
levelled rifles blazed; again and again, almost with- 
out cessation, the storm of lead swept into the head 
of that advance. Down went horses and men, but 
they came on in a seemingly resistless torrent. Not 
until the sixth volley tore through those bleeding, 
staggering, blinded ranks, did they break and turn 
aside. It was then Roman Nose and his horse went 
crashing down, shot to pieces at the very edge of 
the island. Scarcely three feet behind were his 
horsemen, but the frontiersmen poured in their 
seventh volley, and all who lived scurried away, 
hugging their horses' sides as they swept down the 
stream out of the zone of fire. 

[267] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Lieutenant Beecher Slain 

But though driven back, their great chief killed, 
the river bed strewn with slain, the Indians were 
not yet defeated. Again their riflemen lined the 
bank and concentrated their fire on the island. 
Lieutenant Beecher was struck, but succeeded in 
dragging himself over to Forsyth and said quietly, 
"I have my death wound, General; I am shot in 
the side, and dying." 

" Oh, no, Beecher, no. It can't be as bad as that." 

" Yes, good-night," and he sank into uncon- 
sciousness. 

At two o'clock the warriors tried another charge 
of horsemen, but this time their rush broke a hun- 
dred yards from the island. At six o'clock they 
made a third and more desperate attempt, some 
actually reaching the pits, but were hurled back 
with fearful loss. 

Sufferings of the Besieged 

When nightfall came the scattered white defend- 
ers were able to count up their fatalities and clearly 
comprehend the situation. The scene was one of 
surpassing horror. Out of fifty-one officers and 
men twenty-three had been hurt, six dead or dying, 
and eight critically wounded. The suffering of the 
injured was pitiful, and, with no medical supplies, 
and the surgeon dying, the men were unable to 
aid them. Water could be had by digging down 
through the sand, but there v^^ere no rations. The 

[268] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

men sustained life by cutting strips of flesh from the 
bodies of the dead horses. With night came a 
heavy rain, and the scouts dug deeper in stern prep- 
aration for the morrow. 

Under the cover of darkness two men were se- 
lected to try to get through the Indian lines to Fort 
Wallace, one hundred miles away. Every man able 
to travel volunteered for this desperate service, but 
the two chosen were Trudeau, a veteran plainsman, 
and Jack Stillwell, a lad of nineteen. Taking off 
their boots, and walking backwards down the bed 
of the river, they began their fearful trip, and, not 
until long days after did those comrades left behind 
know their fate, and the story of successful achieve- 
ment. With the early morning came a renewed 
attack by the Indians, who had expected Forsyth 
and his men to attempt a retreat during the night. 
This was easily repulsed, and the savages settled 
down for a siege, closely investing the island, and 
keeping up a constant rifle fire from the protection 
of the higher banks. 

The men were now facing starvation. The 
weather was extremely hot, and the sufferings of the 
wounded were frightful. They still had horse-flesh, 
but it was rapidly becoming unfit for use. Not for 
an instant did they dare relax their vigilance. All 
day long they lay under heavy rifle fire. That night 
two other scouts were sent out with a message for 
help, but were unable to get through the Indian 
lines, and came creeping back just before daybreak. 
The third day dragged along under the same 

[269] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

conditions, the slightest exposure of a white man 
the signal for an Indian volley. That night the two 
message-bearers sent forth succeeded in getting 
away safe. The dawn of the fourth day disclosed the 
departure of all the squaws and children from the 
distant hills, but the warriors still remained watch- 
ful and eager to kill. Forsyth's wound in the leg 
was so painful that he cut the bullet out himself 
with a razor, and found great relief. Men, crawl- 
ing cautiously about, their slightest exposure en- 
dangering their lives, ministered to the injured as 
best they could. 

Arrival of a Relief Column 

The fifth day brought them nearly to the verge 
of despair, for the horse-flesh was by now putrid 
and unfit to eat. An unlucky coyote wandered onto 
the island and was killed. During the day the 
Indian fire died down ; but when Forsyth was lifted 
up on a blanket, believing the savages had re- 
treated, a sudden fusilade from the bank caused 
one of the men to drop his corner of the blanket, 
and the commander fell upon his wounded leg, in- 
juring it severely. When the sixth day came, it was 
evident the Indians had finally withdrawn, al- 
though there was still some likelihood that they 
hoped thus to lure forth the little garrison and am- 
buscade them in the hills. Forsyth, however, be- 
lieved their disappearance was final, and he called 
his men about him. Then he bade all those able 
to travel to start for Fort Wallace, as it was 

[270] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

uncertain whether any of their messengers had got 
through. As for himself and the other wounded, 
they would have to stay there and take their 
chances, until help arrived. This proposition was 
at first received in surprised silence, then with in- 
dignant refusal from the lips of every man. Not 
one left the island. For two days longer, with 
nothing to eat but wild plums, they held their rifle- 
pits, knowing from an Indian vedette on the blufifs, 
that they were under constant observation. On the 
morning of the ninth day the relief column came, 
consisting of Colonel Carpenter and a troop of the 
Tenth Cavalry. Forsyth's scouts had fought the 
greatest fight in the history of the West. 



[271] 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS— THE SURPRISE 
OF BLACK KETTLE 

General Sheridan Determines on a Winter Campaign 

THE decisive defeat administered to Roman 
Nose's band, and the death of their leader, 
ended their raids as an armed body. But Black 
Kettle still remained in the field with a much larger 
force, now recruited by those warriors who had 
survived the fight on the Arickaree. Moving south- 
ward, this force became the source of much trouble 
along the Arkansas, and the Santa Fe Trail. Hop- 
ing to strike these savages a severe and unexpected 
blow. General Sheridan decided to organize a win- 
ter campaign against their villages. Campaigning 
on the Great Plains in winter was so filled with 
danger that heretofore it had never been attempted 
by troops operating in any considerable number. 
The terrible storms which swept over the level 
country, as well as the difficulty of finding subsist- 
ence for animals at that season, rendered such an 
experiment perilous in the extreme. Yet it pos- 
sessed advantages also. The Indians felt so abso- 
lutely safe at this season as to take little precaution 
against surprise. Firmly convinced that no troops 
could operate under such conditions as a Western 
winter presented, the savages sought some secluded 
valley, pitched their tepees, and then rested in 

[272] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

security, awaiting the coming of spring. It was 
knowledge of this Indian confidence that deter- 
mined Sheridan's resolve, even against the advice 
of others. Here was opportunity for surprise, for 
the striking of a crushing blow when least expected. 

Need for Speedy Action to Stop Outrages 

That there was abundant need for such action 
is evidenced by the incomplete statistics relating 
to Indian outrages in this department of the Mis- 
souri during the latter half of 1868. While during 
this period only eleven Indians were reported as 
having been killed, and one wounded, one hundred 
and fifty-seven whites were left dead on the Plain; 
fifty-seven wounded, of whom forty-one were 
scalped; fourteen women outraged and later mur- 
dered; one man, four women, and twenty-four chil- 
dren made prisoners; one thousand, six hundred 
and twenty-seven horses, mules, and cattle stolen; 
twenty-four ranches or settlements destroyed ; eleven 
stagecoaches attacked; and four wagon trains an- 
nihilated. And this record is of settlers, not 
soldiers. That the latter did not escape unscathed 
was shown by the killing of Lieutenant Kidder and 
thirteen men of the Second Cavalry, while scouting 
south of the Platte. 

As winter came on reports reached Sheridan that 
Black Kettle's band had gone south and established 
a permanent winter camp somewhere along the 
Washita. The General at once prepared for action. 
Establishing supply depots at Monument Creek in 

[273] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

southern Kansas, near the headwaters of the North 
Canadian, each well garrisoned by troops who were 
ordered to scout thoroughly all the surrounding 
country, the main force destined to active opera- 
tion in the field were rendezvoused at the junction 
of Beaver Creek and the North Canadian River, in 
Indian Territory. This point was about one hun- 
dred miles south of Fort Dodge, and became known 
as Camp Supply. Here were consolidated eleven 
troops of the Seventh United States Cavalry, four 
companies of infantry, and a newly recruited vol- 
unteer organization, the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry. 
George A. Custer, Lieutenant-colonel of the 
Seventh, was assigned to the command. 

Custer Begins his March 

Custer Started on his dangerous march at four 
o'clock the morning of November 23. The ther- 
mometer was below zero, a foot of snow on 
the ground, and snow still falling furiously. To 
Sheridan's question as to what he thought of it, 
the gallant cavalry leader replied instantly, "It's 
all right; we can move, the Indians can't." The 
storm as they advanced increased to a blizzard, and 
the Indian guides lost their way, but the officers 
led the band by resorting to their pocket com- 
passes, and finally the patient, suffering column 
made camp on Wolf Creek, after a march of fif- 
teen miles. The heavily laden wagon train also 
succeeded in getting through the storm, and 
reached camp soon after the arrival of the troops. 

[274] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

The next morning the blizzard had somewhat 
abated, but the thermometer stood seven degrees be- 
low zero, with eighteen inches of snow covering the 
prairie. All that day and the next the troopers 
struggled on up the valley of Wolf Creek. By 
the twenty-seventh they were upon the Canadian, 
and here Major Elliott, with three troops, was sent 
on a scout up the valley seeking some Indian trail 
as a guide. The others put in several hours' hard 
labor in getting their wagon train across the river 
through the floating ice; but by eleven o'clock all 
were once more out upon the level Plains. Here 
one of Elliott's men joined them with news that 
he had discovered the fresh track of an Indian war 
party, fully one hundred and fifty strong, and had 
already followed it south across the river. 

He Reaches the Indian Camp 

Promptly leaving the slower-moving wagon 
train under heavy guard to follow as rapidly as pos- 
sible, Custer pushed out with his remaining cavalry- 
men to overtake Elliott. Each trooper carried one 
hundred rounds of ammunition, besides coffee, hard 
bread, and a small amount of forage. The weather 
had moderated somewhat, and the little column 
took a direct line across the open Plain, the lead- 
ing troop being constantly relieved from the ex- 
haustive labor of breaking a passage through the 
deep snow. At nine o'clock that evening they made 
connection with Elliott, and the weary troopers and 
their mounts enjoyed an hour's rest under the steep 

[275] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

banks of a creek. Then they were at it again, fol- 
lowing the trail by moonlight, the Osages in ad- 
vance under California Joe and a scout named Cor- 
bin. There was a feeling throughout the entire 
force that the hostiles could not be far distant, and 
every movement was made with the utmost caution. 
Not a loud word was spoken, and strict orders were 
given the men against lighting a match or smoking 
a pipe. Suddenly one of the Indian scouts reported 
that he smelt fire, and the column instantly halted 
while the Osages crept stealthily forward to inves- 
tigate. Half a mile ahead a small camp-fire, 
recently deserted, yet smouldered in a bunch of 
timber. There was reason to believe it had been 
kindled by Indian boys herding ponies, and if so 
the village could not be very far away. Again the 
troopers moved silently forward on the trail, more 
cautious than ever. 

The Plan of Attack 

It was past midnight when, unseen and unchal- 
lenged, the half frozen men were suddenly halted 
by the excited scouts. Out of the darkness just 
ahead of where they sat their horses, sounded 
the noise of a barking dog, and the tinkling of a 
bell evidently upon the neck of some leader of a 
grazing pony herd. Instantly it was realized that, 
as yet undiscovered, they had stolen upon the winter 
camp of the hostiles. Custer silently led his officers 
to a ridge whence they could look down upon the 
unsuspecting camp below, now dimly revealed in 

[276] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

the moonlight. Stealthily creeping back to the 
waiting troopers, who were sitting half frozen in 
their saddles, the cavalry leader made rapid prep- 
arations for an attack before daylight. The entire 
command of eight hundred men was divided into 
four nearly equal detachments. Two of these moved 
out at once to make a circuitous march of several 
miles until they should find station on the opposite 
side of the village. They moved to the left, and suc- 
ceeded admirably, creeping within a short half-mile 
of the sleeping camp undiscovered. One of 
the other detachments turned to the right and 
found concealment behind a small clump of timber, 
while Custer with the small number of remaining 
troopers held to the original position on the main 
trail. The signal which was to send all these sep- 
arate bodies crashing to the centre was to be the 
charge blown by the regimental trumpeter with 
Custer's detachment. 

Waiting for the Signal to Charge 

For four long, miserable hours the men on the 
main trail waited silently to give their comrades 
time in which to get ready. It was very cold, but 
the half-frozen troopers were not allowed to make 
the slightest movement, not even to swing their 
arms, or stamp their feet. They stood like statues, 
each man at his horse's head, the capes of their 
overcoats drawn down over their faces to protect 
them from the wind. At the first gray tinge of 
dawn every trooper was alert and ready. Over- 

[277] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

coats were taken off and strapped to the saddles, 
carbines loaded and slung, revolvers examined, and 
saddles carefully recinched. Then the whispered 
command to mount passed down the thin line, and 
each trooper gathered his reins taut and waited. As 
Custer rode forward to the top of the concealing 
crest he saw before him, in the dim light of early 
dawn, not five hundred yards away, a great Indian 
village stretching for a quarter of a mile along the 
north bank of the Washita. Already wreaths of 
smoke were floating out of the tops of some of the 
tepees. As he gazed a rifle shot suddenly rang out 
from the other end of the camp, and instantly he 
gave the order, " Sound the Charge." 

Black Kettle Slain 

As the piercing blare burst forth, the marvellous 
regimental band, which accompanied them, swung 
into the Seventh's fighting-tune of " Garry-Owen," 
and the troopers broke forth into mad gallop, cheer- 
ing wildly as they spurred straight at the startled 
village. Three other trumpets echoed the first, and 
column after column dashed from out their coverts, 
riding gallantly for the tepees. Surprised as they 
were, the Indians rallied to swift, hard, desperate 
battle. Almost with the first volley Black Kettle 
went down to death, but his warriors fought on, 
those who escaped from the village taking refuge 
behind rocks, trees, and under the river bank, while 
the others, hidden within the tepees, fired at the 
charging troops. Little Rock was the Chief now in 

[278] 




SCENES OE INDIAN WARFARE ON THE GREAT PLAINS 



AX ATTACK ON THK OVERLAND STAGE — CUSTER'S CHARGE ON BLACK 
kettle's camp — THE SCOUT'S LAST SHOT 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

command, and Custer soon realized that he had 
serious work ahead with his small force. The num- 
ber of Indians seemed constantly to increase, and it 
was soon learned that this village of Black Kettle's 
was merely one of many, the others being located 
down the stream, yet all within a distance of ten 
miles. All the hostile tribes of the southern Plains 
— Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Comanches, and 
even some Apaches — were gathered there battling 
those few daring troopers of the Seventh. 

Custer's Victory 

This overwhelming force soon compelled Cus- 
ter to assume the defensive. At least two thousand 
warriors fronted him. After an hour's hard fight- 
ing, during which the Seventh lost a number of of- 
ficers and men, and the Indians had one hundred 
and three killed, Custer dismounted his men, and 
prepared to resist a threatened charge. It came 
promptly, the advancing warriors being led by Lit- 
tle Raven, an Arapahoe, Satanta, a Kiowa, and Lit- 
tle Rock, a Cheyenne. The troops made desperate 
resistance, but already their ammunition ran low. 
Suddenly a four-mule wagon came dashing reck- 
lessly through the Indian lines. The quartermaster, 
Major Bell, was driving, and he had with him a 
small escort. Before the startled warriors could 
rally to stop him, the fiercely galloping mules had 
attained the thin line of soldiers, and a fresh sup- 
ply of ammunition was passed from man to man. 
Inspired by this deed of heroism, with their cart- 

[279] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

ridge belts again filled, the troopers sprang forward 
with an impetuosity which drove their assailants 
headlong down the valley, Little Rock being killed 
in the flight. 

Nothing remained now for Custer's command 
but to get away in as good order as possible. About 
them was an overwhelming mass of savages capable 
of crushing them to death when they again rallied 
and consolidated. Burning Black Kettle's village, 
taking their captives along, but turning loose the 
pony herd, the troopers executed a bold movement. 
With flankers out and skirmishers in advance, they 
rode directly down the river toward the congregat- 
ing body of hostiles. Seeking to make these believe 
that the Seventh was only the advance of a much 
larger force, every flag was unfurled and the band 
ordered to play. The audacity of this strange move- 
ment struck terror into the hearts of the warriors, 
and they broke and fled. As darkness descended 
the little column of horsemen turned suddenly aside, 
and, striking the old trail, marched rapidly for 
Camp Supply. 

Major Elliott and his Band Surrounded and Slain 

During the heat of the fight near the village 
Major Elliott, with Sergeant-Major Kennedy and 
thirteen men was seen in close pursuit of a party of 
Indians. When roll-call came after the battle they 
were still missing, and, although searching parties 
were sent out in every direction as far as it was 
safe to proceed, not the slightest trace could be 

[280] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

found. Not until the tenth of the following De- 
cember was the mystery of their fate revealed. 
Then another campaigning column, again under 
Custer's command, moved along the valley of the 
Washita, and found their remains. Custer's report 
reads : 

"The bodies of Elliott and his little band, with but a single 
exception, were found lying within a circle not exceeding twenty 
yards in diameter. We found them exactly as they fell, except 
that their barbarous foe had stripped and mutilated the bodies 
in the most savage manner. No words were needed to tell how 
desperate had been the struggle before they were finally over- 
whelmed." 

The Story as Told by Indians 

Later from the lips of Indians the story of that 
tragedy was given fully. Surrounded and cut off 
from all possibility of rescue, the little band stood 
back to back, and died fighting to the last. The 
one who lived longest was Sergeant-Major Ken- 
nedy. Wounded, his ammunition exhausted, the 
Indians sought to capture him for torture. Ken- 
nedy, being an officer, wore a sword, and as a chief 
came forward pretending peace, hoping thus to 
cause the helpless soldier to surrender, the desper- 
ate man suddenly ran him through. In the quick 
rage of the warriors Kennedy received twenty bul- 
lets in his body, and thus there came to him a mer- 
ciful death. 



[281] 



CHAPTER XV 

THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS— THE INCIDENTS 
OF INDIAN WAR 

Colonel Carpenter in Bivouac at Beaver Creek 

WHILE the fierce engagements on the Aricka- 
ree and the Washita took much of the war- 
like spirit out of the Plains Indians, there was little 
rest to the army on the frontier during 1868-69. It 
was a continuous campaign winter and summer, en- 
livened by numerous minor but spirited engage- 
ments, and individual adventures well worth the 
telling. Three weeks after the rescue of Forsyth 
and his scouts, Colonel Carpenter, who led the res- 
cuing party on that occasion, had a severe battle 
on the banks of Beaver Creek. The Fifth Cavalry 
were in the field following a trail discovered near 
the South Fork of the Republican. A day or two 
after the Fifth had disappeared. Colonel Carr, who 
was in command of that regiment but had been on 
detached service, reached Fort Wallace, and Car- 
penter, with troops H and I, Tenth Cavalry (col- 
ored) was ordered to escort him, until they made 
connection with the Fifth. They left Fort Wallace 
on the morning of October 14, and the next after- 
noon went into bivouac on Beaver Creek. Seeing 
plenty of fresh Indian signs as they advanced, the 
little squad of cavalrymen kept on down the stream 
for thirty miles without striking the trail of those 

[282] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

white troopers they were seeking. There being no 
pack outfits at Wallace, they were obliged to carry 
their supplies in wagons, of which they had eleven, 
and these greatly delayed the march. 

He Repels an Indian Raid 

It was early on the morning of the fifteenth 
when a scouting party under Captain Graham was 
suddenly attacked by Indians who dashed over a 
hill in their rear. A hot fight ensued, during which 
the Captain was wounded and unhorsed; but Car- 
penter came forward so swiftly with reinforce- 
ments, that the assailants were driven ofif. Then'the 
entire body of troops consolidated about the wagors. 
The surrounding Indians increasing in number, 
these wagons were arranged in double column, and 
started forward across the open Plain, where the 
savages could find no cover. The advance, however, 
was slow, and the fire almost continuous until early 
in the afternoon. Then fully six hundred warriors 
massed themselves for a charge. Realizing what 
was coming Carpenter hurried his teams to the sum- 
mit of a small knoll, where he hastily formed a 
wagon corral, and, under that cover, made efifective 
defence. The Indians were driven back with con- 
siderable loss, and finally withdrew without at- 
tempting another attack. 

Colonel Carr Raids an Indian Village 

Colonel Eugene A. Carr, who during this fight 
at Beaver Creek gallantly wielded a rifle beside the 

[283] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

black soldiers of Carpenter's command, later led 
the way in a brilliant attack on the camp of Tall 
Bull at Summit Springs. Carr had with him on this 
occasion five troops of his own regiment, the Fifth 
Cavalry, and was guided by W. F. Cody (Buffalo 
Bill). Tall Bull was, after Black Kettle, the most 
ruthless raider of the Plains. Learning the loca- 
tion of his camp, Carr marched his men one hun- 
dred and fifty miles in four days, and succeeded 
in drawing his troopers up into battle-line, hidden 
within a ravine, not more than twelve hundred 
yards from the unsuspecting village. With the sound 
of tne charge the impetuous cavalrymen swept for- 
wird resistlessly, and in a few moments the fight 
v/as over. Fifty-two Indians, including Tall Bull, 
were killed, and many horses and mules captured. 
Two captured white women in the camp were 
killed before the troopers could rescue them. 

Two Officers Chased by a Great Band 

In the Summer of 1864 Captain Henry Booth, 
inspecting officer, and Lieutenant Hallowell, Ninth 
Wisconsin Battery, had an adventure along the 
Santa Fe Trail which neither was likely soon to for- 
get. They were inspecting posts, and travelled in a 
light wagon drawn by a team of mules. Their es- 
cort was Company L, Eleventh Kansas. Reaching 
Walnut Creek without sight of any Indians, the two 
officers despatched their escort in advance the next 
morning, but were not able themselves to get away 
until three hours later. They had driven five or 

[284] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

six miles from the Walnut, and were within a few 
hundred yards of what is now the Court House 
Square in the present city of Great Bend, when a 
large number of Indians suddenly appeared. In- 
stantly the mules were wheeled about and started 
on a run for Walnut Creek. Hallowell held the 
reins and wielded the whip, while Booth crawled to 
the back of the wagon, and began shooting through 
a hole in the cover at their pursuers. It was a wild, 
mad race over the prairie; both men were wounded, 
and the mules struck repeatedly with arrows. The lat- 
ter, thoroughly frightened, ran away, yet Hallowell 
managed to guide them in the right direction. Time 
and again the red devils charged up to the jump- 
ing wheels, but Booth's revolver was always there 
blazing in their faces. Once they got so close that 
Hallowell slashed them across the faces with his 
whip. It was a neck to neck race clear to the Wal- 
nut, but the officers won it, although both were se- 
verely wounded. Hallowell was compelled to have 
several arrows extracted from his body. 

Skirmishes during the Building of the Railroads 

These are but a few from the many exciting in- 
cidents occurring at this time throughout the length 
and breadth of the Great Plains. There were al- 
most constant attacks on wagon trains, and the 
smaller bodies of scouting troops. The advance of 
the builders of the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific 
Railroads witnessed a continued series of skirmishes. 
The graders durst not leave their camps except 

[285] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

under armed protection, and any straggler was al- 
most certain of death, even in sight of his helpless 
comrades. On more than one occasion unfortunate 
captives were inhumanly tortured within easy view, 
although beyond rifle range. So widely scattered, 
yet so numerous were these outrages, that the com- 
plete story can never be told, nor is there satisfac- 
tory record of even the part played in this Great 
Plains tragedy by the army. Few of their fights 
reached the dignity of battle; it was a campaign of 
hard marches, of ceaseless vigilance, of unending 
peril, of small detachments riding swiftly and strik- 
ing fiercely at an ever scattering foe. 

Sheridan's Report of the Second Expedition to Washita 

How the final result, a brief, unsatisfactory 
peace, was attained can be best learned from an ex- 
tract from General Sheridan's report made in No- 
vember, 1869. It relates particularly to the second 
expedition to the Washita, and reads : 

"The snow was still on the ground and the weather very 
cold, but the officers and men were cheerful, although the men 
had only shelter tents. We moved due south until we struck 
the Washita, near Custer's fight of November 27th, having 
crossed the main Canadian with the thermometer about eigh- 
teen degrees below zero. 

After reaching the Washita, my intention was to take up 
the trail of the Indians and follow it. We rested one day and 
made an examination of the ground ; found the bodies of Major 
Elliott and his small party, and examined the Indian camps or 
villages which had been abandoned when General Custer struck 
Black Kettle's band. They extended about twelve or thirteen 
miles down the river, and from the appearance of things they 

[286] 



THE ARMY ON THE PLAINS 

had fled in the greatest haste, abandoning provision, robes, cook- 
ing utensils, and every species of property, and it appeared to me 
they must have at least begun to realize that winter was not 
going to give them security. 

"On the next day we started down the Washita, following 
the Indian trail; but finding so many deep ravines and canons, 
I thought we would move out on the divide; but a blinding 
snowstorm coming on, and fearing to get lost with a large com- 
mand and trains of wagons on a treeless prairie without water, 
we were forced back to the banks of the Washita, where we at 
least could get wood and water. Next day we continued down 
the river, following the trail of the Indians, and crossed numer- 
ous ravines by digging and bridging with pioneer parties. This 
was continued until the evening of the sixteenth [December], 
when we came to the vicinity of the Indians — principally Kiowas. 
They did not dream that any soldiers could operate in such cold 
and inclement weather, and we marched down on them before 
they knew of our presence in the country; after night they saw 
our fires, and by means of relays communicated with General 
Hazen, and obtained a letter from him saying that the Kiowas 
were friendly. I had just followed their trail from Custer's 
battlefield, and a portion of this band had just come from Texas, 
where they had murdered and plundered in the most barbarous 
manner ; while in the previous spring their outrages on the Texas 
border are too horrible to relate, one item of which is that, in 
returning to their villages, fourteen of the poor little captive 
children were frozen to death. 



"The Cheyennes broke their promise and did not come Iri, 
so I ordered General Custer to move against them; this he did, 
and came on the Cheyennes on the head waters of Red River, 
apparently moving north. It is possible they were on their way 
to Camp Supply, as in some of the conversations I had with 
Little Robe I had declared that if they did not get into the 
Fort Cobb reservation within a certain time they would not be 
received there, but w^ould be received at Camp Supply; this was 
because I expected to stay only for a limited time at Fort Cobb, 
intending to return to Camp Supply. 

[287] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Custer found them in a very forlorn condition, and could 
have destroyed, I think, most of the tribe, certainly their villages, 
but contented himself with taking their renewed promise to come 
into Camp Supply, and obtained from them two white women 
whom they held as captives. The most of the tribe fulfilled 
this latter promise so far as coming into the vicinity of Camp 
Supply and communicating with the commanding officer; but 
Tall Bull's band again violated the promise made, and went 
north to the Republican, where he joined a party of Sioux, who, 
on the thirteenth of May, 1869, were attacked and defeated with 
heavy loss, whereupon the whole tribe moved into Camp Supply. 

" Meantime, while the Arapahoes and Cheyennes were 
negotiating with me to surrender, the Quahrada or Staked Plains 
Comanches sent a delegation over to Bascom, offering to sur- 
render themselves, under the expectation, perhaps, that they could 
get better terms there than with me ; but General Getty arrested 
the delegation, which was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, and 
finally returned to their people on condition that they would 
deliver themselves up on the reservation at Medicine Bluff or 
Fort Sill. This was complied with, and I am now able to report 
that there has been a fulfilment of all the conditions which we 
had in view when we commenced our winter's campaign last 
November — namely, punishment was inflicted ; property 
destroyed; the Indians disabused of the idea that winter would 
bring security; and all the tribes south of the Platte forced on 
to the reservations set apart for them by the Government, where 
they are in a tangible shape for the good work of civilization, 
education, and religious instruction. 

"I can not speak too highly of the patient and cheerful 
conduct of the troops under my command ; they were many 
times pinched by hunger and numbed by cold, sometimes living 
in holes below the surface of the prairie — dug to keep them 
from freezing; at other times pursuing the savages, and living 
on the flesh of mules. In all these trying conditions the troops 
were always cheerful and willing, and the officers full of esprit." 



[288] 



PART III. OCCUPATION 



CHAPTER I 
THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT 

Trading-Posts Built on the Missouri 

PERMANENT occupancy of this country of the 
Great Plains can be dated from the early days 
of the fur-traders. While individual traders and 
free trappers were probably first in the field, and 
carried their small packs down the rivers to St. 
Louis, where they sold them to Eastern dealers, yet 
close upon their heels came partnerships and organ- 
ized companies. The latter soon discovered that it 
was far more profitable to maintain established 
posts, to which the surrounding Indians might easily 
travel and exchange their season's catch of furs for 
other articles of value. Such posts were built all 
along the west side of the Missouri, and for some 
miles up those tributary streams cleaving the 
prairies of Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. Dif- 
fering somewhat in size, and in importance of equip- 
ment, all these earlier fur-trading establishments 
had much in common. A few, those which were 
largest and erected in the midst of hostile tribes, or 
as centres for the supply of minor posts, were well 
fortified, surrounded with strong palisades, heavily 
manned by organized fighting men, and, in one or 
two instances in the warlike Sioux country, even 

[289] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

surmounted by small cannon. But the great majority 
consisted only of a simple trading-store, with a few- 
necessary buildings in which the employees lived. 
Isolated for years from all contact with civilization, 
and without even a visit to the East, surrounded by a 
savage and oftentimes hostile population, their en- 
vironment the vast Plains, their business merely bar- 
ter, the existence of these lonely men became a dull, 
colorless routine, relieved only by such adventures 
as arose from daily contact with wild life. 

Their Development into Settlements 

But this was the beginning of permanent settle- 
ment, for each trading-post required employees, the 
number varying with the importance of the post. 
There were the trader and his clerk, wood-cutters 
and hay-makers, who were also boatmen upon occa- 
sion, probably a few white trappers under contract, 
with a worker or two in wood and iron. Sometimes, 
as at Fort Lisa, opposite Council Bluffs, and some 
others of those larger posts up the river, women 
braved the wilderness to be with the men they loved. 
Certain posts became favorite resting-places for 
free trappers, while others had a large number of 
paid hunters in their employ. Proper care for such 
demanded the building of houses, usually of logs, 
sometimes of earth, or even stone, and the gradual 
development of the Indian trading-house into a gen- 
eral store, where white as well as red could find 
their necessities. The requirements of the frontier 
always included an abundance of "red liquor," and 

[290] 



THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT 

the hardy dispenser thereof was not long delayed in 
coming to the rescue of the thirsty. So, little by 
little, most of these earlier trading-posts changed 
into ugly, straggling settlements, their inhabitants 
at first mere wanderers, the faces changing with 
each season; as one disappeared into the unknown, 
another came drifting out of it to fill the vacancy. 
Roustabouts from the river boats, tired or dissatis- 
fied voyageurs, hunters from off the Plains, ad- 
venturers, vagabonds, the scum of the frontier, came 
and went, yet always a few lingered on in stolid 
content, until out from the great East began to 
arrive those first daring settlers of a new country, 
with wives and children, horses and ploughs, seek- 
ing a permanent home where land was cheap, and 
where manhood counted for more than dollars. 

The Settlements Become Towns 

This was, in brief, the story of the beginning, 
the tale of a hundred towns now dotting the western 
banks of the Missouri, or looking down in peaceful 
content upon the waters of the Kansas, the Platte, 
the Niobrara, and many another stream between — 
the Indian trader, the wanderer, the settler; the 
gradual change from lonely post to prosperous vil- 
lage. The later advance westward was fairly rapid 
for the first one hundred and fifty miles. For that 
distance the prairies were inviting, the growth of 
grasses and timber along the bottoms gave abundant 
promise of other crops, the rainfall seemed suffi- 
cient, and the Indian tribes remained peaceful. 

[291] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Everything in nature urged the settlers onward to 
possess this goodly land. Yet they came in no 
crowds, for there was still much vacant country in 
the East. Only a few, the more adventurous and 
those loving the wild frontier life, pressed across 
the wooded hills of Missouri, or the rolling pastures 
of Iowa, to make settlement on the untried prairies. 
They were bold hearts who first found passage over 
the yellow flood, and established their homes in the 
heart of the wilderness. 

Early Settlers in Kansas and Nebraska 

These first comers clung close to the stream val- 
leys and the productive bottom lands. Led by 
prejudices engendered in the experiences of the 
East, they shunned the open prairie, holding it as of 
little value. In the timber by the river's edge, or 
in the midst of those small groves common to the 
country, they built their log huts, and led lives of 
privation, hardship, and occasional peril. Yet con- 
stantly was this thin skirmish line advancing still 
farther into the unknown, and gaining new recruits 
from the East. Travellers' published letters, the 
reports of explorers, private messages to friends, all 
served to increase steadily the inflowing tide. Sol- 
diers whose terms of service had made them familiar 
with the country settled there; hunters, charmed 
with the rare beauty of this prairie land, became 
permanent residents; and the trader was ever close 
at hand with his stock of goods. 

[292] 



THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT 

Organization into Territories 

There was, however, very little permanent white 
settlement in either Nebraska or Kansas until after 
1854, at which date these Territories were legally 
organized. Previous to this the entire region had 
been designated merely as the "Indian country," 
and its population consisted of little more than 
wandering trappers and hunters, scattered fur- 
traders with their few employees, and those men 
interested in the Santa Fe trade. Yet as soon as 
these Territories were formally thrown open to set- 
tlement, the rush across the border began. The 
local census in 1855 credits Kansas with a popula- 
tion of 8,501, which increased in five years to 107,- 
206. In Nebraska the growth was less remarkable, 
its population in 1855 being 4,494, and in i860, 28,- 
441. In both cases the settlements were almost to- 
tally confined to the river bottoms, and within a 
comparatively short distance of the Missouri. 

Influence of the Santa Fe Trade and the Mormon Hegira 

The Santa Fe trade had much influence on the 
early settlement of Kansas ; and the Mormon hegira, 
together with the opening of the Oregon Trail, on 
that of Nebraska. The more rapid development of 
the southern Territory can also be traced to the strug- 
gle against slavery bringing to Kansas soil ardent 
sympathizers with the North and the South, respec- 
tively, in the fiercely raging controversy. While 
the main outfitting of the caravans bound for Santa 

[293] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Fe occurred at Independence, Missouri, the necessi- 
ties of the trade early developed a considerable set- 
tlement at Council Grove. This point was nearly 
one hundred and fifty miles west of the starting 
place, and, being on the edge of the hostile and 
perilous Indian country, became utilized for re- 
fitting in final preparation for the more serious ad- 
vance. Here was a thickly wooded bottom, half a 
mile to a mile in width, of indefinite length, and af- 
fording a great variety of excellent timber. Settlers 
found their way here at a very early date, some among 
them being skilled workmen. Round Grove, thirty- 
five miles from Independence, was also a rendez- 
vous of caravans, and resulted in a small settlement. 
Where these first trails were compelled to cross con- 
siderable streams enterprising ferrymen quickly es- 
tablished themselves, and in a few years a store 
appeared, with the rude beginnings of a village. 
Topeka was thus begun from Papin's Ferry. 

Squatters along the Trails 

The Opening of the Oregon Trail left scattered 
squatters along its way beside the Vermilion, the 
Blue, and the Platte, but so far apart as to be 
scarcely noticeable. These men, except the operators 
of ferries, lived principally by hunting, and became 
much like their red neighbors in both customs and 
appearance. Not a few cooperated with the latter 
in raids upon the passing emigrant trains. The 
exodus of the Mormons along the Platte Valley 
likewise left a slight population in favorable 

[294] 



THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT 

locations along their route, but in neither case were 
those settlers propagators of civilization. They 
were the mere scum of the frontier, living from 
hand to mouth, little better than the vagrants of the 
Plains, with whom they associated on terms of fra- 
ternity. In nearly every Indian village were to be 
met renegade white men. 

Degraded Character of the Early Settlements 

The establishment of stage lines, and later of the 
Pony Express, compelled the building of stations at 
certain distances apart in a line extending from the 
Missouri River to the mountains. These stations, 
usually mere shacks, sheltered the station-keeper, 
the drivers or express riders, a few hostlers, and men 
employed in various capacities by the company. 
The result was commonly the growth of a small set- 
tlement, generally with its low groggery, and a 
gambler or two to separate the boys from their 
hard-earned wages. Some of these stations on the 
Overland, notably that of Julesburg, where the 
Denver division began, grew into considerable im- 
portance, attracting a heterogeneous population of 
frontier characters, and composing a veritable hell. 
Drinking, carousing, and promiscuous shooting 
were the principal occupations both day and night, 
and very few women of respectability were to be 
found there. 

That mere ability as bar-room fighters did not 
necessarily mean the possession of true courage was 
more than once proven in the history of Julesburg. 

[295] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

On one occasion when the town was harassed by In- 
dians, an old soldier managed to gather together a 
hundred of these desperate frontiersmen in an effort 
to drive back the marauding warriors. They started 
forth full of whiskey and bloodthirsty threats, and 
b'y some miracle were even brought within sight of 
the Indian encampment. But by that time they 
were out of both whiskey and courage. Their 
leader gave the word to charge, and spurred for- 
ward. Hearing no sound of hoofs behind, he 
glanced back, only to discover his gallant band 
scurrying away in every direction. There being no 
other course possible, the disgusted soldier turned 
and followed them. 

During the earlier years, previous to the Ter- 
ritorial act, not a few Missourians crossed the 
border and took squatter's possession of land in east- 
ern Kansas, occasionally arriving in organized com- 
panies. Numerous churches of the east despatched 
missionaries to this far frontier, but their efforts 
were principally directed to the Indian tribes close 
to the Missouri. The Government established sev- 
eral garrisoned posts along that river, the most im- 
portant being old Fort Kearney, on the present site 
of Nebraska City. Other posts. Forts Leaven- 
worth, Scott, and Riley were erected farther out in 
what was yet known as the " Great American Des- 
ert," which was believed to be utterly useless from 
an agricultural standpoint. 



[296] 



THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT 

Discovery of Gold in Colorado 

In 1858 the discovery of gold in the Rocky 
Mountains led to some slight settlement on the west- 
ern edge of the Plains bordering the foot-hills. 
While the miners flocked to the gulches of the great 
range, some there were who found profitable occu- 
pation in the cultivation of supplies for the camps, 
along the valleys of the streams flowing eastward. 
These farmers were to be found at Pueblo on the 
Arkansas, along the banks of Cherry Creek, and on 
the present site of Colorado City. About this time 
the city of Denver was begun ; one William McGaa 
building the first stockade, and William Larimer 
erecting the first house. This was a log cabin, 16 
by 20 feet, having an earthen floor. It stood near 
the corner of what is now Larimer and Fifteenth 
Streets. There were in 1858 five women in Denver. 
In the Spring of 1859 a number of farmers began 
operations in the rich Arkansas bottoms. Corn was 
then worth from five to fifteen cents a pound, and a 
successful crop was as valuable as a gold mine. 
Uniting together, these farmers constructed an irri- 
gating ditch from the Fontaine-qui-Bouille over 
their fields, and planted corn. When this had 
reached a good size, already waving temptingly in 
the wind and sun, a company of disgusted Missouri 
prospectors on their way back East, made camp 
near Fontaine City, and foraged their lean and hun- 
gry cattle on the green blades and juicy stalks. The 
farmers remonstrated, but the Missourians outnum- 

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THE GREAT PLAINS 

bered them, and only laughed. There followed a 
fight, in which some of the Missourians were killed, 
and several on both sides wounded. The victory, 
however, was with the farmers. 

Developing of Freighting in Colorado 

This rapid populating of Colorado resulted in 
a continuous stream of freighting across the Plains, 
but, outside of these narrow lines of communica- 
tion, it led to no settlement in all that wide expanse 
of level desolation. The freight trains of Russell 
and Majors dragged their winding length along the 
Arkansas, or Smoky Hill route day after day, bring- 
ing cargoes of goods, which were stored at their 
depots and sold to retail merchants. Thousands of 
wagons stretched also in continuous line along the 
valley of the Platte, mail facilities were introduced, 
and, as early as 1859, stage-coaches were running 
on regular schedules to Leavenworth. A branch of 
the Pony Express operated from Julesburg. 

Settlers Restrained by the Hostility of the Sioux 

Farther north, in the Dakotas and Wyoming, 
few signs of permanent settlement were to be per- 
ceived so early. The continued and almost con- 
stant hostility of the various tribes of the Sioux 
nation, together with the unattractive appearance 
of the country, conspired to restrain settlers. The 
fact that no great highway traversed the Plains of 
Dakota also made its advantages less known. The 
fur-traders still held to their forts along the Mis- 

[298] 



THE BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT 

souri and tributary streams, and some prospecting 
tiad been undertaken in the Black Hills with indif- 
ferent success. The first permanent settlement was 
made at Sioux Falls in 1856, and a year later a few 
farmers came in along the valley of the Missouri. 
Travelled over by thousands on their journey to 
Oregon or California, Wyoming remained a primi- 
tive wilderness, its sole signs of settlement a few 
fur-trading posts. Nothing served to halt the multi- 
tude, and while a few may have idled along the 
way, there was no permanent population worthy of 
notice. 

This, then, was the condition of the Great Plains 
when, in 1854, Kansas and Nebraska were made 
Territories, and legally thrown open to settlement. 
Across the broad expanse stretched well used trails, 
along which freighting wagons toiled westward to 
the mountains, or emigrant trains crawled on their 
long journey to the Pacific. The vast interior was yet 
scarcely known, touched here and there by solitary 
trappers, or scouted over by squads of hard- 
riding troopers, it yet remained an unexplored wil- 
derness, the domain of wild animals and wild men. 
A slight fringe of early white settlements began to 
show along the eastern river courses; a little later 
adventurous miners swarmed through the gulches 
of the Rockies, but all between stretched the lonely 
desolation which the geographers yet called the 
" Great American Desert." 



[299] 



CHAPTER II 
THE STRUGGLE IN EASTERN KANSAS 

Pro-Slavery Men from Missouri Settle in Kansas 

WITH the Opening of the Kansas-Nebraska 
country to settlement came border war. The 
question whether slavery should be admitted or 
abolished within the limits of these newly created 
Territories being left to a vote of the citizens, the 
advocates of North and South began at once to pre- 
pare for the inevitable struggle. The close proximity 
of Missouri, a slave-holding State, gave to that 
party in the controversy a decided advantage. They 
were nearest to the field of action. Even before the 
country had been formally opened, thousands had 
crossed the line and taken up squatter residence in 
the rich bottom lands of the prairie. Others im- 
mediately followed, and by June, 1854, these trans- 
planted Missourians were already meeting in con- 
vention to adopt resolutions looking to the forming 
of Kansas into a slave State. 

But their opponents were not idle. All through 
the Northeastern States the feeling against a fur- 
ther spreading of slavery was intense. Emigrant 
Aid Associations were organized, and large num- 
bers of emigrants were sent forth under their aus- 
pices, to settle in Kansas, for the express purpose of 
keeping that Territory free. Then men went west- 
ward with rifles and ammunition, expecting to fight, 

[300] 



STRUGGLE IN EASTERN KANSAS 

but believing firmly in the justice of their cause. 
They went as settlers, taking with them their wives 
and children, yet animated by the feeling that they 
were soldiers volunteering in a righteous cause. 
Their wagons were piled high with household goods, 
and driven by stern-faced men, who came to fight 
the battle of freedom. It was the beginning of the 
end — the first clash in a great war between right 
and wrong, destined to terminate years later at 
Appomattox. 

The Founding of Leavenworth, Atchison, and Lawrence 

The first attempt at founding a town was made 
at Leavenworth, about the middle of June, 1854. 
Of the thirty-two persons interested some were pro- 
slavery, and some were free-State men, and the po- 
litical character of the place has ever since been 
greatly mixed. In July, Atchison was laid out, and 
for several years was violently pro-slavery, and the 
centre of operations for all dwellers in the Terri- 
tory holding those sentiments. The same month 
anti-slavery men established a settlement on Back 
Bone Ridge, which later became Lawrence. It was 
born under difficulty, the first meeting being dis- 
persed by an invasion of border ruffians, as the Mis- 
souri invaders were called. But the first company 
of free-Staters, thirty in number, was soon rein- 
forced by sixty or seventy more. The infant city 
constantly grew, being known at different times as 
Waukarusa, New Boston, and to the Missourians as 
Yankee Town, until the name of Lawrence was 

[301] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

finally adopted. The earlier colonists dwelt in 
tents, but as winter approached they built rude 
houses, either log or pole or thatch. 

The tide of emigration from the free States con- 
stantly increased, being continually instigated by 
agitation. They spread back over the prairies for 
considerable distances, making homes in choice 
neighborhoods. They were there to stay. While 
some of the Missourians became permanent resi- 
dents, the majority came into the country merely 
to create trouble, passing back and forth across the 
line, making little effort at permanent settlement. 
Topeka was started by a small party in December, 
but did not exceed twenty-five inhabitants during 
the year. The fourth company from New England 
chose the present site of Manhattan. Grasshopper 
Falls was also an early settlement of free-State men. 

Societies Organized to make Kansas a Slave State 

By the Autumn of 1854 all eastern Kansas was 
practically in a state of guerilla war. Throughout 
the Missouri border counties secret societies were 
organized with the avowed object of extending slav- 
ery into Kansas. The members wore a bit of ribbon 
in the buttonhole to make them known to their fel- 
lows, and used passwords. These various organiza- 
tions operated under different names, — Blue Lodge, 
Social Band, Friends' Society, Sons of the South, — 
but were all closely affiliated for the one purpose. 
Their general plan was to run out all free-State men 
from the country; to keep an armed force always 

[302] 



STRUGGLE IN EASTERN KANSAS 

ready for invasion, and to furnish enough voters at 
every Kansas election to overcome the actual set- 
tlers. But, in spite of all such efforts, the free-State 
emigration into Kansas constantly increased, and the 
men coming were of the kind to fight fiercely for 
their rights either with ballots or rifles. 

The struggle opened with the cowardly seizure 
of several settlers, including Thos. A. Minnard and 
the Rev. Frederick Starr, by bands of border ruf- 
fians, on the sole charge that they were abolitionists. 
Some of these were openly whipped, and others 
driven forcibly out of the country. With threats, 
and a display of armed force, the first settlers at 
Lawrence were ordered not to stop there, but the 
free-State men retaliated, and the Missourians re- 
tired without firing a shot. For a time the contest 
for supremacy shifted to the polls, and, with the 
approach of election day, hordes of Missourians 
overran the country, intimidating the widely scat- 
tered free-State settlers, and in many places actually 
driving their opponents from the polls, themselves 
voting as often as was deemed necessary. In this way 
the pro-slavery cause won what was then held to be 
a great victory, the whole border ringing with ac- 
clamations, and with denunciation of the defeated 
abolitionists. 

Success at the polls gave to the pro-slavery party 
new courage and confidence. This led almost im- 
mediately to acts of violence. The first of these 
mob outrages occurred in Parkville, where a free- 
State printing press was seized and thrown into the 

[303] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Missouri River. Several of the Missouri secret 
societies adopted resolutions against allowing any 
ministers from the free States to preach in Kansas, 
and threatening dire results if they dared persist. 
Prominent free-State men were ordered to leave 
the country, and when they refused to be intimidated 
they were visited by a mob and treated brutally. 
Throughout all the eastern counties of Kansas the 
people lived over a volcano which might burst forth 
at any moment. 

Holloway, in his " History of Kansas," thus pic- 
tures the two different elements in the community: 

"The pro-slavery men, impetuous, aggressive, and overbear- 
ing sought by all possible means to embroil the opposite party 
into difficulties. The free-State men, cool, prudent, and saga- 
cious, as harmless as doves and as wise as serpents, acted entirely 
upon the defensive, and avoided, as much as possible, all troubles. 
The former were blustering and mercenary, the latter quiet and 
unobtrusive. The former claimed as their right the very thing 
which had been referred to the decision of the ballot-box; the 
latter only claimed the right which their Government guaran- 
teed them, of assisting to give shape to that decision. The one 
was wild with excitement, blinded by prejudice, rough and pro- 
fane, supported by the adjoining State, strong in numbers and 
wealth; the other quiet, intelligent, refined, and devotional, were 
far removed from friends, liable to be crushed at any moment 
by the furious and threatening ruffians of the border. The 
press of one sent forth slang, vituperation, misrepresentation, 
and inflammatory appeals, fit fuel for civil war; that of the 
other denounced all acts of violence, and appealed to men's 
better natures to abstain from engendering strife." 

Triumph of the Pro-Slavery Men 

Finally, through the forced resignation of Gov- 
ernor Reeder, and the carrying of elections by the 

[304] 



STRUGGLE IN EASTERN KANSAS 

importation of illegal voters from Missouri, the 
pro-slavery advocates obtained complete control of 
the Territorial Government. Not a single free- 
State man was left in the Legislature, which pro- 
ceeded to enact laws most repulsive and obnoxious 
to the vast majority of the real settlers. Arrogant 
and domineering, the victors, through fraud and in- 
timidation and violence, proceeded to add insult to 
injury. " Never in the history of the world " says a 
writers of those times, " even in days when might 
made right, were there such barefaced and audaci- 
ous acts of civil oppression inflicted upon a com- 
munity." The Legislature was all-powerful; it ap- 
pointed State and county officers, levied taxes, and 
gagged the free men and the free press. 

Revolt of the Anti-Slavery Men 

In this emergency the free-State men seem to 
have acted with deliberation and dignity. They held 
a number of mass meetings, in which some violent 
speeches were made, although the general spirit ap- 
peared conciliatory. The second Governor of the 
Territory, Wilson Shannon, of Ohio, finding upon 
arrival that all legislative power was already in the 
hands of the pro-slavery party, and being himself 
a Democrat of the old school, very naturally came 
under the influence of the Missourians. The 
acknowledged leader of this side during the greater 
part of these border difficulties was a man of real 
strength and conviction, David R. Atchison, for- 
merly United States Senator from Missouri. In 

[305] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

political manipulation, the handling of men, the 
inflaming of passion, and the daring intimidation 
of opponents, he was a past master. 

Finding the ordinary road to reform blocked 
by fraud and violence, the ballot boxes and all law- 
making power in the hands of their enemies, the 
free-State settlers resorted to the expedient of openly 
ignoring all acts of legislation passed by the pro- 
slavery House of Representatives. They utterly 
discarded all courts, justices, probate judges, and 
registers. Meeting at Topeka they drew up an 
amateur Constitution, and began to live independ- 
ently under its provisions. 

This open revolt must, of necessity, lead to an 
early clash between the partisans. Hatred grew, 
and particularly were the passions of pro-slavery 
men directed toward that ofifensive hotbed of abo- 
litionism, the town of Lawrence. The story of the 
bloodshed, the skirmishes, the battles, and the mid- 
night assassinations in those months which followed 
cannot be related here in detail. From the historical 
standpoint many of these scenes of violence and 
hatred have little value, even though logically con- 
nected with the solution of a great question to be 
finally decided by the mightiest war of modern 
times. Here was the preliminary struggle fought 
out amid the loneliness of the Kansas prairies, while 
personal hatred and party animosity ofttimes hid 
the real issue, and turned war into assassination, and 
changed battle to massacre. Neither side can be 
absolved of wrong; the spirit of mercy seldom 

[306] 



STRUGGLE IN EASTERN KANSAS 

hovered over the contending camps of pro-slavery 
and free-soil advocates; it was a contest of gueril- 
las, merciless, revengeful, fought out in the brush by 
the light of burning homes, and amid the agony of 
the innocent. On whichever side our sympathies 
may be, in horror we must turn away ashamed of 
the atrocities wrought by the rifle and the torch un- 
der the cloak of virtue. Scarcely a foot of eastern 
Kansas but was soaked with blood, and the names 
of obscure fields of strife are legion. 

John Brown's Voice is for War 

The resort to arms may be said to have begun in 
a claim dispute at Hickory Ridge, ten miles south 
of Lawrence, November 21, 1855, where a pro- 
slavery squatter named Coleman assassinated a 
young free-soiler, Charles M. Dow. As a result of 
this affair the entire country seemed to gather into 
hostile camps. There were several skirmishes, and 
finally the pro-slavery men besieged Lawrence, 
within which some six hundred free-soilers had en- 
trenched themselves. Finally, through the efforts 
of Governor Shannon, the invading horde of Mis- 
sourians, who composed the major part of the pro- 
slavery forces, were induced to withdraw. By the 
majority of the free-State party this was hailed as 
a notable victory, but among their orators there was 
one who protested vigorously. Spring writes : 

"A single voice was raised in solemn and public protest 
against the peace. After the treaty and its stipulations had 
become known; after speeches of felicitation on the happy sub- 

[307] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

sidence of perils that threatened to engulf the settlement in ruin 
had been made, an unknown man — tall, slender, angular ; his 
face clean shaven, sombre, strongly lined, of Puritan tone and 
configuration; his blue-gray eyes honest, inexorable; strange, 
unworldly intensities enveloping him like an atmosphere — 
mounted a dry-goods box, and began to denounce the treaty 
as an attempt to gain by foolish, uncomprehending makeshift 
what could be compassed only by the shedding of blood. Since 
that day the name of this unknown man, plucked down from 
the dry-goods box with his speech mostly unspoken, has filled 
the post-horns of the world — old John Brown." 

The Winter of 1855-56 was a most severe one, 
and the consequence was a temporary peace between 
the warring factions. But rumors of an expected 
invasion by the Missourians in the spring were scat- 
tered broadcast, and they intensified the prevailing 
bitterness. A sheriff named Jones, who had been a 
moving spirit in the last affair, started the spring 
outbreak, by an endeavor to arrest several leading 
free-soilers at Lawrence. Jones was promptly shot, 
but not killed, and once again Lawrence became the 
centre of turmoil, the town being attacked by a mob 
of avenging pro-slavery men, thoroughly sacked, 
and many of the prominent citizens arrested and 
driven out of the country. Atchison, who was in 
command, urged moderation, and his counsel pre- 
vented bloodshed, although the destruction of prop- 
erty was great. 

Brown takes a Mean Revenge 

The burning and sacking of Lawrence instantly 
aroused in the scattered free-State men a fierce de- 

[308] 







O 






1 I ^"f *^' i^/ 



4"^ 










/, /V: 



) r 



STRUGGLE IN EASTERN KANSAS 

sire for retaliation. Everywhere they rallied under 
arms. The first act of revenge was utterly without 
justification; it remains a blot on the free-State 
cause and on the name of old John Brown, who was 
concerned in it. This was a foray from the free-soil 
settlement of Ossawatomie to a place known as 
Dutch Henry's Crossing, where a company of pro- 
slavery raiders had been in camp. Only seven or 
eight men, besides Brown, were in the expedition. 
The raiders having already departed, these men de- 
cided to put out of the way certain pro-slavery squat- 
ters in the neighborhood. It was cowardly night 
work, but when day dawned, the assassins rode back 
to Ossawatomie, leaving behind them, hacked and 
slashed with cutlasses, the corpses of five men. No 
justification for this act, worthy of consideration, 
has ever been advanced even by Brown's most 
ardent admirers, while his own statements were so 
evasive as to deceive his most intimate friends. Yet 
there may have been a reason satisfying his con- 
science which the world will never know. The 
result was a fresh invasion of Missourians, and a 
concentration of pro-slavery forces in the neighbor- 
hood of Ossawatomie, which led to armed fighting. 
Palmyra and Prairie City were raided by a band in 
camp at Black Jack, but this body was fiercely at- 
tacked by a party of free-soilers under Brown, and 
the leader. Pate, and most of his followers were cap- 
tured. A pro-slavery trader at St. Bernard was also 
made prisoner, and his stock of goods confiscated. 

[309] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Guerilla Warfare 

Parties favoring both sides now took the field, 
and guerrilla fighting swept the full length of the 
border, United States troops endeavoring vainly to 
interfere between the belligerents. The pro-slavery 
men were forced sullenly back, and for a time de- 
voted all their energies in an effort to stop further 
immigration from the free States. Finding their 
efforts at obstruction useless, the thoroughly mad- 
dened Missourians once again took up their rifles 
for the invasion of Kansas. But in the meantime 
new settlers had been pouring in, animated by the 
principle of free-soil, and ready to defend it with 
their lives. Yet Missouri was the natural gateway 
to the country, and the bitterness along the border 
resulted in a considerable cutting off of supplies, so 
that many of the free-State towns were practically 
blockaded. Robbery and pilfering were daily oc- 
currences, and murder was not infrequent. Tecum- 
seh and Lawrence were the greatest sufferers. 
Franklin was the scene of a fierce battle; and the 
free-State men, being victorious, pushed on toward 
Lecompton, where they had a hot skirmish and cap- 
tured Fort Titus. For the time being the fortunes 
of war seemed with the free-State party, but the 
pendulum swung about evenly; attack and defence, 
advance and retreat, became the regular order, each 
adventure costing new lives and adding to the bitter- 
ness between factions. 

As though in actual war, there was an exchange 
of prisoners. Governor Shannon conducting nego- 

[310] 



STRUGGLE IN EASTERN KANSAS 

tiations on one side, and a committee from the To- 
peka convention on the other. The adaed contro- 
versy growing out of this act resulted in Shannon's 
resignation. In after years he thus forcefully 
summed up the situation: "Govern the Kansas of 
1855 and '56? You might as well have attempted 
to govern the devil in hell." For it was now the 
pro-slavery turn of the wheel, and Ossawatomie the 
point of attack. Here old John Brown was driven 
out, but not without a fight, in which six free-State 
men were killed, including two of his own sons, and 
the buildings burned to the ground. In retaliation 
the free-soilers rallied and invested Lecompton, but 
were dispersed without battle. 

Governor Geary Attempts to End the War 

John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, became the 
new Governor. In the words of Spring, he — 

"stepped into the border tumult with the assertive bearing of 
a Titan. Superb, and not wholly misplaced, was his self- 
confidence. That he did not idealize the situation is clear, as he 
took pains to say that it could not be worse. Not only did he 
fully anticipate success, but the very desperation of affairs fas- 
cinated him. After ten weeks in the Territory he wrote, *I am 
perfectly enthusiastic in my mission.' " 

And it is fair to say that he started well ; but he was 
dealing with antagonistic elements which probably 
no man could have controlled without almost un- 
limited military power. Anarchy, revolt, and chaos 
were everywhere; every man carried arms, neigh- 
bors distrusted each other, and many bands roamed 

[311] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the country with no higher purpose than plunder. 
Missourians in armed bodies kept pouring across 
the border, and neither inaugurals, proclamations, 
nor military orders were able to halt them. There 
was fierce fighting all along the line, but generally 
centring in and about Lawrence; and every raid by 
pro-slavery men found its echo in some outrage per- 
petrated by the advocates of free-soil. It becomes 
wearisome to attempt even to name the multitude of 
skirmishes, the midnight assassinations, the repeated 
advances and retreats, of the scattered bodies of par- 
tisans. After six months of desperate effort to stem 
the tide Geary fled in defeat to Washington. 

The Contestants Becoming Tired, Order is Established 

His successor was Robert J. Walker, also a 
Pennsylvanian, an experienced, smooth-tongued 
politician. Convention followed convention, with 
plenty of rifle practice between, and finally an elec- 
tion in which the free-State party were victorious. 
In the turmoil which followed, Walker fled the 
country, and General John W. Denver, a Virginian, 
was sent forth as the next victim. Politics continued 
hot, but the contestants being somewhat tired out by 
continuous war, the operations in the field had by 
this time degenerated into "jay-hawking," — a local 
term for the shooting of neighbors who belonged to 
the other side of the controversy. This custom died 
out slowly, but by the Summer of 1859 it became less 
frequent, and a crude, rudimental order was estab- 
lished throughout the Territory. During the period 

[312] 



STRUGGLE IN EASTERN KANSAS 

of the Civil War the border towns suffered severely, 
Lawrence, as usual, being the special object of at- 
tack. 

Summary o£ the Struggle 

Spring ably sums up the entire period of dis- 
order in these satisfactory words : 

"The struggle for the possession of Kansas, the loss of which 
to the South made secession a certainty, was essentially political 
and constitutional — not military. The few skirmishes that took 
place have a secondary if not tertiary importance. In the field 
of diplomacy and finesse the pro-slavery leaders were outgen- 
eralled. Reckoning too confidently and disdainfully on num- 
bers, on nearness to the theatre of operations and federal sup- 
port, they also blundered in adopting consequently a policy of 
noise and bluff. They came thundering into the Territory on 
the thirtieth of March, 1855, when quieter measures would have 
served their purposes far better. In the sack of Lawrence, and 
the dispersion of the Topeka Legislature, victories were won 
which returned to plague the victors. The career of the free- 
State party under the lead of Governor Robinson, who pro- 
jected and inspired the whole tactical plan of its operations, has 
no parallel in American history. Composed of heterogeneous, 
clashing, feverish elements; repudiating the Territorial Legis- 
lature, and subsisting without legislation — an intermediate con- 
dition of virtual outlawry — from the settlement of Lawrence 
until 1858, the party was not only successfully held together 
during this chaotic period, but, by a series of extraordinary 
expedients, by adroitly turning pro-slavery mistakes to account, 
and by rousing Northern sympathy through successful advertise- 
ment of its calamities, rescued Kansas from the clutch of Mis- 
souri, and then disbanded." 



[313I 



CHAPTER III 
DAYS OF THE CATTLE KINGS 

Dawn of the American Cattle Trade 

THESE days, whose true beginnings cannot be 
stated with positiveness, extend somewhat be- 
yond the date with which the record of this volume 
is supposed to conclude, yet, being an important 
part of the story of the Great Plains, the review of 
them cannot well be avoided. No more picturesque 
state of life in the open — strenuous, perilous, heroic 
— has ever been penned. The cowboy of the Plains 
was a unique figure, to whom full justice has never 
yet been accorded. To the many he remains a riot- 
ous character, whose principal occupation was the 
shooting up of border towns. Yet this was a mere 
incident in a hard, laborious life, lived almost con- 
tinuously in the saddle, on remote ranges or upon 
the Long Trail. His was emphatically the spirit of 
the West, the boundless sweep of prairie his natural 
environment, the saddle his home. 

Far away in point of time, the wild-cattle indus- 
try of America had its birth in far-off Mexico. Rap- 
idly the herds increased, those hordes of long- 
horned, wild cattle, ever seeking a wider range to 
the northward, following close to the retreating 
buffalo, and herded by reckless Mexican cowboys,, 
swarthy of face and picturesque in costume. Thus 
in time the advance guard of this vast army of cattle 

[314] 



DAYS OF THE CATTLE KINGS 

drifted across the Rio Grande, and out upon the 
Texas Plains. Soon it was discovered that the short 
gray grass of northern Texas, upon which the roam- 
ing bufifalo had thrived so long, would rear cattle 
to a much greater size than the herbage along the 
coast. A cow weighing five or six hundred pounds 
in the low country, would increase one-third on this 
higher range. And there the cowboys drove the 
herds, sometimes with Indian consent, sometimes 
holding their range with rifles. 

The Mexican Cowboy Succeeded by the American 

It was here a change began, not only in the na- 
ture of the cattle, but also in the personnel of those 
men who herded them. One by one the swarthy- 
faced Mexican riders dropped aside, and adventur- 
ous young Americans leaped into the vacated sad- 
dles and rode the trails. They were not bad men, 
as the border reckoned, although out of their ranks 
came desperado and outlaw, but the majority were 
young, adventurous, the stuff of whom good sol- 
diers are made, ever welcoming danger, defying 
privation, resolutely overcoming difficulty, and in- 
sistent upon their rights. This was practically the 
dawn of the American cattle trade. The Long 
Trail began pushing its sinuous length northward, 
as the owners of the fast-increasing herds sought 
more profitable markets. At first the drive was back 
into old Mexico; but the way was long, the prices 
were low. Then it turned northward, and remained 
there to the end. As early as 1857 Texas cattle 

[315] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

were driven to Illinois; in 1862, to various points 
on the Mississippi River. In 1867 a drover started 
with his bunch for California, only to be halted by 
hostile Indians; but two years later herds were 
driven from Texas to Nevada. 

Texas Cattle on the Long Trail 

But these were mere side trails. The one of 
real importance aimed for the markets of the 
North. The close of the Civil War found the 
Texas Plains fairly covered with millions of wild 
cattle having no actual or determinate value. Un- 
less an outlet could be found they would remain 
utterly worthless. But railroads were by that time 
pushing out across the Plains of Kansas. With 
every mile of advance the steel rails brought nearer 
the markets of the world. Instinctively the Texas 
cattlemen moved forward to meet them. The vast 
array of tossing broad-horns were headed northward, 
and the cowboys rode behind urging them on in 
solid phalanx. It was a wondrous sight, this ever 
increasing stream of cattle sweeping out of the dim 
Plains, over hundreds of miles of grim desolation 
to the markets of the North. Across the Canadian, 
the Cimarron, and the Red River, over the Plains 
of Texas, the diversified lands of the Indian nations, 
the rolling prairies of Kansas, the slowly advancing 
droves found passage, the trail ever cutting deeper 
into the soil. In the year 1866 alone, it was pounded 
down by the hoofs of more than a quarter-million 

[316] 



DAYS OF THE CATTLE KINGS 

cattle. Five years later over six hundred thousand 
long-horns crossed the Red River north-bound. 

The Rise of Mushroom Towns on the Trail 

What days those were along the border, when 
money was plentiful, and human life the mere sport 
of a moment! Town after town, becoming in turn 
the terminus of the Long Trail, rose into sudden 
prominence, only to sink again into as sudden ob- 
livion as the iron rails advanced. Abilene, Newton, 
Wichita, Ellsworth, Hays City, Great Bend, Dodge 
City all had their day, their feverish activity, their 
flaming up into good and evil repute. Within the 
limits of each in turn vice held high carnival. Here 
it was that, weary with the Long Trail and the 
months of solitude passed on lonely ranges, the 
reckless nature of the cowboy found invitation to 
excess. Here, at the end of his journey, weary with 
labor and peril, like the sailor ashore after a long 
voyage, the herder squandered his hard-earned 
wages, and sank his real manhood in riotous dissi- 
pation and passionate indulgence. Here he be- 
came the desperado, the " gun-fighter," and the 
" bad man." He was encouraged to no higher life. 
Gambling-houses and brothels filled the streets 
from end to end; the saloon welcomed him as he 
swung down from the saddle ; the very air was elec- 
tric with the pleasures of sin. When under the in- 
fluence of vile liquor and riotous associates, the 
mild-mannered, generous, manly fellow, who rode 

13^7] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

so confidently the vast wilderness of the Plains, be- 
came a terror, whose only recognized law was the 
"45" dangling at the hip. 

Cattle-Raising on the Northern Plains 

Gradually the nature of the Long Trail changed. 
The more northern Plains also began to raise cattle, 
but of a different breed, and prejudice grew against 
the longhorns. There came a scourge of fever 
among the Texas cattle, and settlers of Kansas rose 
in revolt against the contagion being spread among 
their own herds. With rifles they barred the Trail, 
and grimly turned back the thousands pressing 
north. There were fights along the border, in 
which both sides had to take account of their dead. 
By 1868 the more northern Plains, between the Mis- 
souri and the Rockies, had been sufficiently cleared 
of their wild inhabitants to admit of slight settle- 
ment. Cattlemen were prompt to take advantage 
of these broad pastures. The buffalo grass and the 
pure water of the streams were conducive to the 
rapid growth of stock. True, the loss through the 
severity of winter storms proved very large, yet the 
increase remained sufficient to yield satisfactory 
profit. The range was yearly extended northward, 
the vast herds gradually forcing back the inferior 
cattle of Texas. The Long Trail swung slowly 
westward with these changes governing the mar- 
ket. The old time famous — or infamous — cattle 
towns sank into commonplace villages, and the dar- 
ing range-riders drove their herds of long-horns 

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DAYS OF THE CATTLE KINGS 

through every open park, mesa, and valley of Colo- 
rado, and across the high plateaus of Wyoming into 
distant Montana. Somewhere on the way they be- 
came merged into the northern droves, losing their 
old wild identity, their progeny floating southward 
again to market, minus the longhorns, the typical 
cattle of the later trade. 

Strenuous Life of the Cowboy 

For many a long year the western portion of the 
Great Plains was held utterly unfit for agriculture. 
It remained in its primitive barrenness, almost un- 
touched by settlement. To the teeming thousands 
of the East it was still looked upon as a vast forbid- 
ding desert. Across it stretched those narrow trails 
where travellers passed on their journey westward, 
anxious only to reach its end. The plodding freight- 
wagon, the lumbering stage-coach, the flying express 
passed this way, yet saw nothing but the endless 
wilderness. But here was the cattle country, ex- 
tending finally from the Rio Grande to the North 
Dakota line, roamed over by vast herds, and 
guarded night and day by an army of cowboys. By 
magic the cattle industry had spread over all this 
neglected region ; and jealous of its rights, it fought 
back for many a year all attempts at permanent set- 
tlement within its chosen domain. The wide, 
untrammelled range belonged to the cattlemen by 
right of possession, and they held it with the rifle as 
long as possible. Hough writes: 

"It was a curious, colossal, tremendous movement, this 
[319] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

migration of the cowmen and their herds, undoubtedly the great- 
est pastoral movement in the history of the world. It came with 
a rush and a surge, and in ten years it had subsided. That 
decade was an epoch in the West. The cities of Cibola began. 
The strong men of the Plains met and clashed, and warred and 
united and pushed on. What a decade that was! What must 
have been the men who made it what it was! It was an iron 
country, and upon it came men of iron. Dauntless, indomitable, 
each time they took a herd North they saw enough of life to fill 
in vivid pages far more than a single book. They met the 
ruffians and robbers of the Missouri border, and overcame them. 
They met the Indians who sought to extort toll from them, and 
fought and beat them. Worse than all these, they met the desert 
and the flood, and overcame them also. Worse yet than those, 
they met the repelling forces of an entire climatic change, the 
silent enemies of other latitudes. These, too, they overcame. 
The kings of the range divided the kingdom of free grass." 

The Cowboy's Daily Work 

Life in the great cattle country was a life of 
variety, yet of sameness. Hardship, loneliness, peril 
were the cowboy's constant companions. No weak- 
ling long survived, no coward ever endured. The 
far north and far south ranges presented different 
problems for solution, different dangers to be met, 
yet over all was a sameness except as to detail. In 
some places the struggle was against drought, against 
the pitiless desert, the arid heat of sun-baked desola- 
tion; in others the battle was as sternly waged 
against the deadening sleet, the down-sweep of the 
storm across the bare Plains. In either case it re- 
quired men to ride the lines and hold the cattle. 
There are those among us even in this day who look 
back and dream; we see again the wide sweep of 

[320] 



DAYS OF THE CATTLE KINGS 

plain and sky; we feel the sense of freedom which 
that broad expanse brings, the mastery of the wilds. 
This sense of freedom and mastery constituted 
the exhilaration which drew and held thousands to 
the dull routine work of the range. About the home 
ranch the days and nights passed under a discipline 
no less severe because it was only half acknowl- 
edged. The foreman ruled; the cowboy grumbled 
but obeyed, even unto death. He was a good sol- 
dier, or the camp would have none of him. From 
earliest gray of dawn until the flickering twilight, 
work never ceased. There were no vacations, no 
furloughs from this service of the range. Except for 
those brief, infrequent periods passed amid the gar- 
ish glitter of some frontier hell at the end of the 
drive to market, the demands of duty seldom ceased. 
Never did men work harder, through longer hours, 
or amid more peril and discomforts, for so small a 
wage, as these tireless guardians of the herds. Yet 
they loved it, and the marvellous joy of the life 
crept into the blood. It was the call of the wild. 
Night and day, in sunshine and in storm, they rode 
the uplands and the valleys ; they slept in the saddle, 
or on the open Plains under the stars of the Great 
Desert; they conquered the wild horses of the prai- 
ries into obedience to quirt and spur; they dashed 
forward into a melee of frightened cattle, while the 
thunder roared and the lightning flashed, with death 
on every hand. They were the minute men, never 
knowing when the call for sacrifice might come, 
yet never failing to answer when it did. Under his 

[321] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

picturesque garb, every article a necessity of his 
calling, — the hairy "chaps," the broad sombrero, 
the clanking spurs, the glistening "slicker," — beat 
the undaunted heart of a man loyal to his employer, 
faithful to his duty, and a Westerner from head to 
foot. 

His Character as Affected by his Environment 

Except for the round-ups in spring and fall, and 
the drive to market, the social life of the cowboy 
was confined to the companionship offered by the 
home ranch, or an occasional meeting on the wide 
range. Month after month he was alone, or with 
the single comrade who rode the lines with him. 
Inevitably he grew silent, chary of speech, but quick 
and effective in action. Scarcely knowing why, or 
how, the environment marked him, as the sea the 
sailor. He became a part of those Great Plains he 
ruled and loved. Always he was at war — the war 
of man with brute, of man with the elements; he 
must conquer or go down. Riding about the sleep- 
ing herd at night, singing lustily to calm their fears; 
loping in seeming carelessness beside the advanc- 
ing column, amid the dust of thousands of hoofs; 
sweeping across the sun-browned ridges, a mere 
speck in the vast landscape; spurring desperately 
with his fellows to bring in the last stray for the 
branding; or rolled in his blanket under the stars, 
the cowboy must be always ready, resourceful, pre- 
pared for any emergency. Nothing must count but 
duty; human life was a bagatelle in those days on 

[322] 



DAYS OF THE CATTLE KINGS 

the Plains: in the mad stampede of the blackest 
night; in the crazy drifting before a northern bliz- 
zard, in the fierce down-rush of water through the 
canyons, with every impetus of quirt and spur the 
daring rider must head the rush of terrified animals, 
or lie himself a shapeless pulp under their pounding 
hoofs. There is no choice then! " Ride, Jim! Ride, 
Springtime! and Tex., and Curley, and Kid, and 
Cherokee, and all the rest of you! Now, if ever, 
you must be men of proof! Into the rattle of it, up 
to the head of it, press, spur, crowd! Shoot into 
their faces, frighten them back, turn them aside, 
ride into them, over them, but ride fast and thought- 
less of yourself! There is no possibility of taking 
care. The pony must do it all. The pony knows 
what a stumble means. The herd will roll over 
horse and man, and crush them as if they were but 
prairie flowers. The ground is rough, but there 
must be no blunder. Ah, but there was! Some- 
thing happened there ! There was a stumble ! There 
was a cry, smothered; but all that was half a mile 
back. The herd sweeps on." 

His Battles with Savages and Others 

And those range days are full of other stories. 
It was not cattle and storms alone the cowboy con- 
tended against. He was soldier and scout, as well as 
herder. Again and again, sometimes singly, some- 
times in company, he met the savage in contest of 
blood. Comanche, Apache, Kiowa, Arapahoe, 
Cheyenne, and Sioux, all had a try at the nerve of 

[323] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

those lone white riders, and they paid the cost. And 
there was war everywhere. Many a cattle-king held 
his kingdom of free grass and free water by grace of 
the rifle and the reckless daring of his men. There 
were battles — unknown, unnamed — fought out 
fiercely in the nooks and corners of the cow-country 
— struggles against rivals, against "rustlers," 
against " nesters," against sheep-men, against the 
gradual advance of civilization and settlement. And 
the cowboy was loyal to the " old man " — his life as 
freely offered here, in some quarrel regarding the 
merits of which he knew nothing, as when he rode 
recklessly to round up a stampeding herd. 

The Last of the Cowboy 

But the end came — came with the steady ad- 
vance of iron rails across the open Plain, and the 
consequent influx of emigrants. In spite of their 
struggles the cattlemen were driven back, their vast 
ranges transformed into farms, their free grass check- 
ered by wire fences. It was inevitable. The Western 
farmer, though often discouraged and beaten, came 
to stay, and he stayed. The railroads crossed the 
continent in many a line, ever narrowing the cow- 
country. They began to build spurs and side-lines ; 
they bent north and south ; they wiped out forever 
free grass and free water. The occupation of the 
cowboy was gone ; the herds vanished, the wide 
sweep of the Plains became only a memory. The 
centre of what was left of the cattle industry shifted 
to more remote regions, to Wyoming and Montana 

r324] 



DAYS OF THE CATTLE KINGS 

in the North, to New Mexico and Arizona in the 
South. With the change in environment much that 
had served to make the cowboy unique and pic- 
turesque disappeared. Yet to the end he remained 
a typical figure of the West, while the routine of 
his duties only slightly varied. He who has best 
written his story, Emerson Hough, thus sums up its 
closing chapter: 

" The cowboy was simply a part of the Great West. Never 
was any character more misunderstood than he ; and so thorough 
was his misrepresentation that part of the public even to-day will 
have no other way of looking at him. They see the wide hat, 
and not the honest face beneath it. They remember the wild, 
momentary freaks of the man, but forget his lifetime of hard 
work and patient faithfulness. The way in which we should 
look at the cowboy of the passing West is not as a curiosity, but 
as a product; not as an eccentric driver of horned cattle, but 
as a man suited to his times. . . . He was a part of the 
warp of an interwoven web of humanity, still leaving a dash of 
color upon the growing monotone." 



[325] 



CHAPTER IV 
BUILDING THE FIRST RAILROAD 

Resistance of Indians to the Advance of Civilization 

THE building of the Union Pacific marked the 
commencement of a new epoch on the Great 
Plains. Over a large extent of hitherto desolate 
country it was the harbinger of advancing civiliza- 
tion and settlement. To none was this more quickly 
apparent than to the aboriginal inhabitants of that 
vast waste. Whether or not the Indian mind fully 
comprehended the significance of those parallel 
iron rails pressing relentlessly forward up the 
Platte Valley, this advance of the white man to 
supremacy was instantly met with fierce and pro- 
longed resistance. Never before, or since, in the 
history of the Plains tribes, was there so close an 
alliance for war against a common enemy. Every 
wild tribe, nation, and band were in the field, and 
from end to end of the border sounded the war-cry, 
and arose the flames of destruction. This began 
with the earliest efiforts at surveying a route, and 
continued until after the driving of the last spike. 
Surveyors, graders, trackmen, even trainmen, fought 
desperately for every mile they attained westward. 
The end of the track was almost inevitably a battle 
ground. The workmen labored, with their guns 

[326] 



BUILDING THE FIRST RAILROAD 

within easy reach, and under the vigilant guard of 
detachments of troops. Night and day peril lurked 
on every side, and savage spying eyes watched for 
opportunity over adjacent ridges. The strain, the 
imminent danger, was incessant, the skulking foe 
ever close at hand. 

Surveys for a Pacific Railroad 

The possibility of building a rail communica- 
tion across the continent had been a dream of cer- 
tain army officers and venturesome civilians, for 
many years. As early as 1849 Lieutenant Warner 
made certain surveys in the farther West of the 
mountains, which may be held as preliminary to 
this great project. From the terminus on the Mis- 
souri exploring surveys, with this purpose clearly 
in mind, began as early as 1853, and continued each 
year until 1861, when the coming on of the Civil 
War put a temporary stop to contemplated plans. 
These surveys were conducted by General G. M. 
Dodge, and in picturing them I shall largely quote 
his own language. He says : 

"The first private survey and exploration of the Pacific 
Railroad was caused by the failure of the Mississippi and Mis- 
souri — now the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific — to complete 
its project. The men who put their money into that enterprise 
conceived the idea of working up a scheme, west of Iowa, that 
would be an inducement to capital to invest in carrying their 
project across Iowa to the Missouri River. They also wished 
to determine at what point on the Missouri the Pacific Rail- 
road would start, so as to terminate their road at that point. 
The explorers adopted Council Bluffs, Iowa, as that point." 

[327] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Lincoln's Share in Founding the Union Pacific 

The Union Pacific Company was finally organ- 
ized at Chicago, September 2, 1862, but the war 
then being on in earnest, the effort to engage capital 
in the project proved a failure. Little was immedi- 
ately accomplished, except some further prelimin- 
ary surveys carried on by Reed, Dey, and Brayton. 
But previous to this an accidental meeting between 
General Dodge and Abraham Lincoln had oc- 
curred, by which Mr. Lincoln's interest had been 
aroused regarding the projected movement. This 
resulted later in governmental assistance toward the 
furthering of the scheme. Dodge writes of this 
early conference : 

"During these explorations, in 1856 or 1857, I happened to 
return to Council Bluffs, where Mr. Lincoln chanced to be on 
business. It was then quite an event for an exploring party to 
reach the States. After dinner, while I was sitting on the stoop 
of the Pacific House, Mr. Lincoln came and sat down beside 
me and, in his kindly way and manner, was soon drawing from 
me all I knew of the country west, and the result of my surveys. 
The secrets that were to go to my employers he got, and, in 
fact, as the saying there was, he completely 'shelled my woods.' " 

As a direct result of that interview, in the Spring of 
1863 President Lincoln sent for Dodge, then with 
Grant's army at Corinth, to come to him for further 
conference at Washington. 

Under the action of a law passed by Congress 
in 1862, it had become the duty of the President to 
fix the eastern terminus of the projected Pacific 
Railroad. Lincoln was deeply interested in the 
whole matter, and very desirous of having the ad- 

[328] 



BUILDING THE FIRST RAILROAD 

vance made promptly. Council Bluffs was selected 
for the eastern terminus, but the strain on the Gov- 
ernment at that time made it necessary to rely upon 
private enterprise for the furnishing of means to its 
building. Nothing further of importance was accom- 
plished until, in 1864, Congress enacted further leg- 
islation; but after the close of the war exploration 
of the territory involved was renewed with vigor, 
and several satisfactory routes for crossing the 
mountains were discovered and surveyed. These 
various exploring parties were under Government 
control, largely being commanded by officers of the 
army; but the route adopted by the Union Pacific 
was laid out mainly through private enterprise. 
Commercially, although not from an engineering 
viewpoint, it constituted a true line from the Atlan- 
tic to the Pacific. 

It and the Central Pacific Built for Commercial Purposes 

But the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific 
(the latter the section west of Ogden, built under 
separate organization of capital, yet in unison) were 
projected for commercial purposes, and with the 
one object — to obtain a quick, short line from river 
to coast. With the rather serious engineering ob- 
stacles encountered, particularly in the mountainous 
regions, we are not now especially concerned. That 
they were most formidable must be apparent to all 
travellers of these later days, but our particular 
interest now centres on the great country of the 
Plains where the work was comparatively easy, and 

[329] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the grades light. In 1863 and 1864 the final sur- 
veys were systematically begun, and by 1866 the 
entire selected route was being carefully considered. 
In Dodge's graphic language: 

" Day and night, summer and winter, the explorations were 
pushed forward through dangers and hardships that very few 
at this day appreciate; as every mile had to be in range of the 
musket, there was not a moment's security. In making the 
surveys numbers of our men, some of them the ablest and most 
promising, were killed ; and during the construction our stock 
was run off by the hundred, I might say by the thousand. As 
one difficulty after another arose and was overcome, both in the 
engineering and construction departments, a new era in railroad 
building was inaugurated." 

The Construction an Arduous Work 

This simple statement is well within the limits 
of modesty. From every standpoint it was a mar- 
vellous enterprise, carried successfully forward with 
great skill and courage in midst of constant peril 
and almost insurmountable discouragements. In 
1865 forty miles of track was laid; in 1866, two 
hundred and sixty; in 1867, two hundred and forty, 
including the ascent to the summit of the Rocky 
Mountains, at an elevation of over eight thousand 
feet; in 1868, and up to May 10, 1869, five hun- 
dred and fifty-five miles more was added, besides 
which over one hundred and eighty miles of tem- 
porary and side tracks was constructed. The mar- 
vel of it grows as the conditions are considered. 
This was through a new, unsettled country; over 
desert, plain, and rugged mountain, with hostile 

[330I 





^.— - 







SCENES ALONG THE LINE OF THE FIRST RAILROAD 



RAILROAD-BUILDING ACROSS THE PLAINS — AN ATTACK ON THE CONSTRUCTION 
GANG TYPE OF THE TOWNS WHICH SPRANG UP ALONG THE NEW LINE 



BUILDING THE FIRST RAILROAD 

Indians swarming over the route, and every la- 
borer and every pound of equipment hauled hun- 
dreds of miles to the front. 

The first grading wsls commenced in the Autumn 
of 1864, and the first rail placed in position in July 
the following year. At this time there was no rail 
communication between Council Bluffs and the 
East, while the country to be traversed could furnish 
little, if any, of the materials necessary. Timber, 
fuel, steel — everything required, including mules 
and men, had to be transported for hundreds, and 
oftentimes thousands of miles, by steamboats up the 
dangerous Missouri, and then in wagons along the 
prairie trails. It required a most efficient organiza- 
tion, an able corps of officers, an army of men, a 
multitude of mules. Probably the experiences de- 
rived from the great war just concluded alone made 
so stupendous an undertaking possible. The lead- 
ers of construction had been trained in the field to 
overcome natural obstacles, to meet emergencies in 
the quickest practicable manner. They were not the- 
orists, but builders. Many of the employees were 
discharged volunteers, disciplined by three years in 
the ranks, habituated to danger and hardship. Back 
of this efficient field force stood the Government as 
sponsor; already burdened with billions of debt, 
fifty million dollars more was floated to help to 
finance this project which promised so much for the 
development of the West. This act created a credit 
which enabled the railroad management to float an 
equal amount with ease. Handled by men of means, 

[331] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

courage, and unbounded faith, — men who threw 
their own private fortunes into the scale, — the gi- 
gantic task was begun and finished. The men at 
the front always knew they had behind them a re- 
serve force that would never fail. 

Military Protection for the Workmen 

In the actual field work the regular army be- 
came conspicuous. The commissary department 
was freely utilized. Troops in considerable num- 
bers were detained to guard the various working 
parties; the pioneers explored, surveyed, located, 
and built inside picket lines, while scouting parties 
of cavalrymen patrolled the more distant bluffs, or 
vigorously pursued Indian raiders. The workmen 
marched to their labor to the tap of the drum, every 
man armed for instant battle. They stacked their 
guns on the dump, as they stripped for the day's 
work. Writes Dodge : 

"General Casement's track-train could arm a thousand men 
at a word ; and from him, as a head, down to his chief spiker, 
it could be commanded by experienced officers of every rank 
from general to captain. They had served five years at the 
front, and over half of the men had shouldered a musket in 
many battles. An illustration of this came to me after our track 
had passed Plum Creek, two hundred miles west of the Mis- 
souri River. The Indians had captured a freight train, and 
were in possession of it and its crew. It so happened that I 
was coming down from the front with my car, which was a 
travelling arsenal. At Plum Creek station word came of this 
capture and stopped us. On my train were perhaps twenty men, 
some a portion of the crew, some who had been discharged and 
sought passage to the rear. Nearly all were strangers to me. 

[332] 



BUILDING THE FIRST RAILROAD 

The excitement of the capture, and the reports coming by tele- 
graph of the burning train, brought all the men to the platform, 
and, when I called upon them to fall in, to go forward and 
retake the train, every man went into line, and by his position 
showed that he was a soldier. We ran down slowly until we 
came in sight of the train. I gave the order to deploy as 
skirmishers, and at the command they went forward as steadily, 
and in as good order, as we had seen the old soldiers climb the 
face of Kenesaw under fire." 

Effects of Increased Settlement on Soil and Climate 

In those days the one thought of the promoters 
of this great transcontinental line was the through 
traffic. Probably not one among them dreamed of 
the swift development of the country traversed by 
their lines of rail, or that those deserts would ever 
be thickly populated. Even as late as the date of 
the completion few there were who believed those 
barren, treeless wastes could ever be made agricul- 
turally profitable. But the tide of population, seek- 
ing cheaper land on which to build homes, surged 
resistlessly westward. They were pushed from the 
fertile valleys onto the barren Plain, and, by the help 
of nature, conquered the wilderness. The very cli- 
mate changed before the mystery of this advance of 
civilization. The iron rails, which soon spread in 
every direction, the upturning of the prairie sod, 
the planting of trees, worked a miracle of regenera- 
tion. Especially was this notable in the rain-fall. 
Observers have testified that, with the beginning of 
civilization, the rain-belt steadily advanced west- 
ward from the Missouri at the rate of eight miles a 
year. In the earlier days on the Plains none of the 

[333] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

main crops could be raised except by irrigation. 
From April to September no rain fell over a vast 
region. The snows of the mountains alone fur- 
nished the streams with water, and gave the short 
bunch grass sufficient dampness to sustain its life 
until July. To those who knew that country then, 
and can behold it to-day, the difference is mar- 
vellous. The truth is, the Great Plains were never 
a desert, in the proper application of the term. They 
were a misunderstood region, where fertility only 
awaited opportunity. That opportunity arrived 
with the coming of a railroad, and the thousands of 
hardy settlers who flocked to the promised land. 
Dodge sums it all up in these words; 

" It Is not too much to say that the opening of the Pacific 
Road, viewed simply in its relation to the spread of population, 
development of resources, and actual advance of civilization, was 
an event to be ranked in far-reaching results with the landing 
of the Pilgrims, or perhaps the voyage of Columbus." 

And Inman adds: 

"The Great Salt Lake Trail is now crossed and recrossed 
by the iron highway of commerce. The wilderness is no longer 
silent; the spell of its enchantment is broken. The lonely 
trapper has vanished from the stern mountain scene. The Indian 
himself has nearly disappeared, and in another generation the 
wild landmarks of the old trail will be almost the only tangible 
memorials of the men who led the way." 



[334] 



T 



CHAPTER V 
BORDER TOWNS 

Cow-Towns the Nuclei of Permanent Settlements 

HIS pushing forward of railways into the 
wilds of the Plains caused a rapid advance of 
settlement where formerly the sustenance of life 
had been impossible. At the end of the unfinished 
line, as it progressed westward, there was always a 
mushroom town built of shacks and tents, among 
which saloons and brothels were prominent, the 
streets generally littered with discarded tin cans, 
and, at night, swarming with a heterogeneous popu- 
lation. Here lived the surveyors, the graders, the 
track-layers, and the train men, and about them clus- 
tered swarms of parasites desirous of living off their 
wages through the glittering allurements of sin. 
Some of these temporary halting-places became 
towns and cities of importance in later years, and 
one or two held the honor of forming the end of 
the Long Trail in the closing era of the cattle trade; 
but more often they passed into absolute oblivion 
as the road advanced, their very names forgotten. 

Yet every eight or ten miles along the gleaming 
rails there was left the nucleus of settlement, some- 
times a mere water-tank, with its attendant section 
house, planted like a guard in the grim desert; 
again, some such desolate spot would arrive at the 
dignity of a cow-town, a shipping place for the 

[335] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

cattle of neighboring ranges. Under the stimulus 
of this passing trade the place would flourish and 
expand, shacks would spread out over the prairie 
into the semblance of a straggling village; general 
stores would appear along the main street, usually 
facing the track, rude, barnlike structures; saloons, 
gambling-dens, and dance halls would be strewn 
thickly in between the few legitimate business 
houses, while cattle pens straggled along the road 
in evidence of the town's real mission. During the 
height of the cattle trade, after the moving west- 
ward of the Long Trail, these places became cen- 
tres for a wide extent of trade, and led a wild, 
riotous, and prosperous life. 

The Cowboys' Idea of Enjoyment 

To thousands of cowboys, riding the sun-browned 
plains of Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, and Indian 
Territory, isolated for weary months of incessant 
toil in the saddle and at the home ranch, such 
squalid settlements, when finally reached once or 
twice a year, afiforded their sole glimpse of the 
wider world. Here, to their minds, was life; and, 
no sooner was their bunch of cattle safely penned 
for shipment, than they turned themselves loose, 
seeking all the enjoyment to be found. They were 
like children attracted by tinsel and tawdry glit- 
ter, and all that was offered them was of the lowest. 
The vices of the border were few and coarse, but 
these the cowboy ofTf duty was eager enough to 
sample. He found plenty of teachers ready to as- 

[336] 



BORDER TOWNS 

sist, so long as he parted freely with his coin. Every 
man stood for himself alone in those days and in 
that land; he was what he proved himself to be 
by the rude code of the border. There were no 
artificial distinctions, no social barriers; it was a 
world governed by physical force, dominated by 
passions unrestrained. The West asked no questions 
of any man; all that had been, in other days, east 
of the Missouri, was blotted out. Here he stood 
eye to eye with his fellows, and no voice challenged 
him. 

Character of the Frontier People 

Emerson Hough writes : 

"Virtue was almost unknown In the cow-town of the 'front' 
in the early days. Vice of the flaunting sort was the neighbor 
of every man. The church might be tolerated; the saloon and 
dance-hall were regarded as necessities. Never in the wildest 
days of the wildest mining camps has there been a more dissolute 
or more desperate class of population than that which at times 
hung upon the edge of the cattle trail or of the catle range and 
battened upon its earnings. The chapters of the tale of riotous 
crime which might be told would fill many books, and would 
make vivid reading enough, though hardly of a sort to the pur- 
pose here. . . . It is strange that the records of those days 
are the ones that should be chosen by the public to be held as the 
measure of the American cowboy. Those days were brief, and 
they are long since gone. The American cowboy has atoned 
for them by a quarter of a century of faithful labor, and it is 
time the atonement were written for him in the minds of the 
people by the side of the record of his sins." 

Picturesqueness of the Cow-Towns 

These little cow-towns, while they lasted, were 
full of color, excitement, and picturesqueness. 

[337I 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

Never again can their like be seen. The environ- 
ment was dull, desolate, forlorn; all that was worthy 
of the eye, the thought, was the pulsing human ele- 
ment. All about was the barrenness of great Plains, 
stretching unrelieved to the horizon, while here in 
the middle of the grim picture clustered the rude, 
unpainted houses, the shacks, the grimy tents flap- 
ping in the never ceasing wind, the ugly red station, 
the rough cow-pens filled with lowing cattle, the 
huge, ungainly stores, with false fronts decorated 
by amateur wielders of the paint-brush, and the 
more ornate dens of vice. The pendulum of life 
was ever swinging here: if the day was dull, the 
night made up for it in clamor; if a week passed 
listlessly, the next was crowded full with riot and 
spending. It all hung on the coming and going of 
those reckless riders of the range. When the dust 
rose high above the trail, the sleeping parasites 
awoke in eager anticipation, and set their traps for 
the victims riding in so gaily to their fate. 

Mixed Society of the Cow-Towns 

How the vivid memory of it all comes back, in- 
tensified rather than faded by the years. Society 
was mixed, no man cared who his neighbor was, 
no man ventured to question. Of women worthy 
of the name there were few, — the station-keeper's 
wife, perhaps, with one or two others, — yet the 
night saw flitting female forms in plenty, and the 
lights of the saloons displayed powdered cheeks 
and painted eyebrows. It was a strange, restless, 

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BORDER TOWNS 

commingled population enough — cowboys, half- 
breeds, desperadoes, gamblers, saloon-keepers, mer- 
chants (generally Jewish), petty officials, and 
drunkards by profession. The town was an eddy 
which caught odd bits of driftwood, such as only 
the frontier ever knew. Queer characters were 
everywhere, wrecks of dissipation, derelicts of the 
East, seeking nothing save oblivion. Life was 
cheap in the midst of such chaos, and all the dig- 
nity of the law vested itself in the town marshal 
or the sheriff. He ruled not through any terror of 
courts behind him, but by sheer force of personality, 
and an acknowledged ability to " drop " his man. 
The position was no sinecure, and he who held it 
successfully needed to be a man of nerve. Early 
and often was he put to the test, and any failure 
to "make good" was his official death-knell. Those 
who "won out" through such trials of endurance 
were, with hardly an exception, of the same stripe 
— cool, quiet, courageous fellows, just, patient, and 
fair in their treatment of offenders, but quick as a 
steel trap, and as unyielding in fight as a bulldog. 

The first requisite for any man who would pros- 
per in a cow-town was undoubtedly "sand." Any 
one permitting himself to be " run over," was from 
that moment an object of contempt, and sooner or 
later every new arrival was put to the test, and la- 
belled accordingly. If he " made good," his future 
career in that community was a much easier road to 
travel. Every border town in those days was cer- 
tain to contain its bully, or "bad man." He was 

[339I 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

generally a surly desperado, possibly a coward at 
heart, but malicious and quarrelsome when in li- 
quor. Not infrequently two, or more, of this 
interesting class partnered together in search for 
trouble. Their special game was " tenderfeet," or 
new arrivals, for the old hands were not so easily 
dealt with. Yet the man who minded his own busi- 
ness, and kept his mouth shut, was seldom interfered 
with. The majority of the gun-fights so prevalent 
in those days, occurred between men who were 
hunting for trouble, and only occasionally was 
there a killing in which the victim was any loss to 
the community. 

The Druggist and the Cow-Puncher 

A Stranger soon learned that every man who 
sported a " gun," and swaggered about with pro- 
fane oaths on his lips, was not necessarily coura- 
geous, and the first feeling of awe often changed to 
one of contempt. The average " bad man " always 
sought an advantage; "quick on the draw," un- 
scrupulous, generally provoking the quarrel, he took 
few chances of injury. Yet it was not always easy 
to distinguish the true from the false. In a cow- 
town every citizen sported his gun, and there was 
only one recognized method of settling a difficulty. 
The individual must defend his own rights, and 
the man who won respect was the fellow who demon- 
strated himself as being " square," who was never 
out hunting trouble, but who always met it prompt- 
ly when it came. Anecdotes of those strenuous 

[340] 



BORDER TOWNS 

days are numerous; the pages of writers upon 
Western history and romance teem with them, and 
facile pens have thus made commonplace bar-room 
roughs into frontier heroes. 

The Larger Cattle-Towns 

The larger cattle-towns, those chosen from time 
to time during its western migration as a terminus 
for the Long Trail, were merely greater and more 
cosmopolitan representatives of this same life. 
While the small cow-town attracted the reckless 
riders of the neighboring ranges, the more exten- 
sive one drew to itself from out the wide distance 
the entire floating population of the border. Here 
met the cattle-men of the West and their legions of 
riders, the long drive ended, and their pockets 
bulging with money they were eager to spend. 
From Nebraska and Texas, the Territory, and even 
New Mexico and Colorado, they came in, driving 
before them vast herds of dusty, tired cattle, and 
already intoxicated with dreams of joys awaiting 
them. And the joys were there, the dispensers 
ready for the carnival. From dawn to dawn the 
tireless search after pleasure continued. The bag- 
nios and dance halls were ablaze; the bar-rooms 
crowded with hilarious or quarrelsome humanity; 
the gaming-tables alive with excitement. Men 
swaggered along the streets looking for trouble, 
and finding it; cowboys rode into open saloon doors, 
and drank in the saddle; troops frenzied with liquor 
spurred recklessly along the streets firing into the 

[341] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

air, or into the crowd, as their whim led them ; bands 
played popular airs on balconies, and "barkers" 
added their honeyed invitations to the din. It was 
a saturnalia of vice, a babel of sound, a glimpse of 
inferno. Every man was his own law, and the gun 
the arbiter of destiny. The town marshal, or the 
sheriff, with a few cool-headed deputies, moved 
here and there amid the chaos, patient, tireless, un- 
daunted, seeking merely to exercise some slight re- 
straint. Never again can such sights be beheld; 
even now there may be those who will doubt the 
truth of the picture. 

Their Riotousness 

Yet town after town passed through this experi- 
ence, before the Long Trail finally disappeared 
from history. Abilene, Newton, Wichita, Ells- 
worth, Great Bend, and Dodge, each in turn, wel- 
comed and entertained the riotous crew. Out of 
the mystery of the Great Plains they came, ripe for 
mischief, in search after excitement, and the thou- 
sands of providers flocked to give them greeting. 
Those were the great days of the range, days when 
money was as water, and the cowman reigned as 
king ; no wonder the towns that entertained him were 
lively, and everything "went" at the end of the 
drive. He paid for his fun; let him shoot out the sa- 
loon lights, and demolish the bar — double the value 
w^ould be given when he sobered up and remem- 
bered. When men would order a hundred dollars' 
worth of ham and eggs, or bathe in champagne, the 

[342] 



BORDER TOWNS 

ordinary methods of the effete East were not to be 
considered. The cattle country had its own stand- 
ard, as it had its own vices. The men who made it 
were a race unto themselves, and those of another 
generation are not fitted to judge them. They were 
good and bad; nobility was no stranger along the 
border, and a friend there was a friend to death. 
Good manhood was always assured of respect, and 
true womanhood revered. Ours the failure if out 
of the chaos, the brutality of this primitive society, 
we fail to discern the real character of those who 
dominated it. 

Hough's Pen-Picture of the Cow-Town 

I like to dwell on Hough's appreciative picture 
of his last glimpse of the typical cow-town : 

"It is high and glaring noon in the little town, but it still 
sleeps. In their cabins some of the men have not yet thrown 
off their blankets. Along the one long, straggling street there 
are few persons moving, and those not hastily. Far out on the 
plain is a trail of dust winding along, where a big ranch wagon 
is coming in. Upon the opposite side of the town a second and 
more rapid trail tells where a buckboard is coming, drawn by 
a pair of trotting ponies. At the end of the street, just com- 
ing up from the arroyo, is the figure of a horseman — a tall, 
slim young man — who sits straight up on his trotting pony, 
his gloved hand held high and daintily, his bright kerchief just 
lopping up and down a bit at his neck as he sits the jogging 
horse, his big hat pushed back a little over his forehead. All 
these low buildings, not one of them above a single story, are 
the color of the earth. They hold to the earth therefore as 
though they belonged there. This rider is also in his garb the 
color of the earth, and he fits into this scene with perfect right. 
He also belongs there, this strong, erect, and self-sufficient figure. 
The environment has produced its man." 

[343] 



CHAPTER VI 

OUTLAWS AND DESPERADOES 

Varieties of the Desperado 

THE wide extent of the Plains, the free un- 
trammelled life, and lack of law-enforcement, 
led inevitably to the development of the outlaw. 
The typical " bad man " of the cattle-towns was not 
necessarily in this class, although his kind was very 
frequently represented. The men of note on the 
border, who took up robbery as a trade, were seldom 
brawlers, and almost never swaggered through the 
streets posing as desperadoes. They were of a far 
more dangerous species, with whom action spoke 
louder than words. In the " good old times " there 
was a class of men along the frontier sufficiently 
large to be seriously reckoned with ; these were fugi- 
tives from justice, and escaped criminals. They 
preferred living on the extreme border, were always 
suspicious of strangers, and generally ready enough 
to be recruited for any crime, under competent lead- 
ership. Such leadership was seldom lacking. 

The desperado was always in evidence in the 
cow-towns. Often he was only a blustering, 
whisky-soaked coward ; but some of his class were 
natural fighters, and became savages in their desire 
for notoriety and slaughter. Usually choosing 
" tenderfeet" as being easy victims, they sometimes 
sought after harder game. Such a border ruffian 

t344] 



OUTLAWS AND DESPERADOES 

has been known to travel hundreds of miles for the 
purpose of having a fight with another whose fame 
as a dead shot rivalled his own. At one time a dep- 
uty United States marshal of southern Kansas, a 
wonderful two-handed shooter (that is, one who 
could use a revolver equall}' well with either hand) , 
was ordered to arrest a notorious bully. In the fusil- 
lade which naturally resulted both were shot 
through the body. Some hours later the dying des- 
perado asked how the marshal was, and being told 
he could not live until morning, expressed himself 
as satisfied. " I'm willing to die," he said, "when 
I can take along with me the best pistol-shot on this 
frontier." The marshal recovered. 

Julesburg a Notorious Haunt of Desperadoes 

Through all the years of its earlier existence 
Julesburg was celebrated for its desperate charac- 
ters. Twenty-four hours seldom passed without 
contributing another silent occupant to Boots Hill, 
the famous cemetery where every sleeper was laid 
away with his boots on. Homicide was performed 
in the most genial manner, shooter and shootee smil- 
ing pleasantly into each other's face. Jack Slade, 
who had charge of that division of the overland 
stage route, was probably the most successful as- 
sassin of them all. Competent authority affirms that 
he was guilty of having murdered in cold blood over 
fifty men, sometimes tying them to a stake, as he 
did Old Jules, and deliberately practising at them 
with a pistol. Yet when his own time came to pay 

[345] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the cost, when he was in the remorseless hands of 
Montana vigilantes, he begged on his knees, crying 
and whining like a whipped cur. 

Cattle-Stealing 

Next to homicide, the most popular crime of 
the border was probably cattle-stealing. There 
were, at different times, well organized bands for 
the robbery of mail-coaches; outlaws, frequently 
disguised as Indians, openly attacked emigrant 
trains on the trail; but "rustling" cattle on the 
Plains apparently had the greatest attraction for the 
largest number of the reckless and depraved. To 
a cowboy out of work, or chafing under authority, 
it was the natural outlet. In some ways, and to an 
acommodating conscience, it scarcely seemed a 
crime to pick up an unmarked calf, or a stray cow 
wandering along in some sequestered coulee, and 
apply a branding iron in claim of ownership. This 
step once taken, the next naturally followed, and a 
deft touch of the hot iron easily changed one brand 
into another. The " lO" brand became " lOI," or 
even "ilOB"; the " ) — ( " mark was transformed 
into "O— O"; or the "V" was altered into "-^." 
It was all extremely simple, the tools necessary were 
very few, and the changes infinite. At the end of a 
season, with the final spring round-up, the enter- 
prising " rustler" had a nice bunch of cattle to his 
credit on the range, and, whatever suspicion might 
be afloat, there was no direct evidence forthcoming. 

All this was plain sailing at the start, and many 
a great fortune in the cattle business was begun in 

[346] 



OUTLAWS AND DESPERADOES 

just this way. Nor were those early " rustlers " ver^ 
much ashamed of their trade. If they stole, it was 
from men who, strictly speaking, possessed little 
property except what they had likewise stolen, and 
held by force of arms. The great companies pros- 
pered on free grass and free water, which they 
seized and guarded. But the time came when these 
large owners combined for the purpose of crushing 
out the little fellows. This was done with the inten- 
tion of stopping rustling, but it increased it a thou- 
sand fold. Opposition stirred up the spirit of open 
rebellion in the cow-puncher; to him it was an 
invasion of rights to be promptly resented* 

Cattle Thieves become the Majority 

From a very small industry cattle-stealing be- 
came a recognized trade, the few scattered rustlers 
of the earlier years consolidating into organized 
bands, with assistants everywhere. More than once 
they met the riders of the big ranges in open battle, 
and again there was war on the Great Plains. 
Hough writes : 

"The rustler was a cow-puncher, and one of the best. He 
understood the wild trade of the range to its last detail. Among 
cow-punchers there were men naturally dishonest, and these 
turned to illegal rustling as matter of course. They were joined 
by the loose men of the upper country, who 'were not there 
for their health,' and who found the possibilities of the cattle 
system very gratifying. These took in with them, sometimes 
almost perforce and against their will, often at least against 
their convictions, some cow-punchers who were naturally as 
honest and loyal men as ever lived. To understand their actions 
one must endeavor to comprehend clearly what was really the 

f347] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

moral code of that time and that country. This code was utterly 
different from that of the old communities. Under it the man 
who branded a few calves for himself as an act of 'getting 
even' with the unjust rules of the large cow outfits and the big 
Eastern syndicates was not lowered in the least in the 
esteem of his fellow-men, but, to the contrary, was regarded as 
a man of spirit, and therefore entitled to the rough Western 
respect which had no eye for him who submitted to be 'imposed 
upon.' " 

The Vigilantes 

To this class, struggling for what they deemed 
their rights, there drifted naturally all sorts of hard 
and dissolute characters from out the chaotic popu- 
lation. All that were lawless along the frontier 
discovered there an opportunity for crime, and 
embraced it with ardor. The more recklessly des- 
perate rose to leadership, and soon attracted a 
following easily turned toward unrestrained out- 
lawry. Murder and open robbery were committed ; 
stock was run off in droves, regardless of brand; 
horses changed owners in a night; and no man hav- 
ing property was safe from attack. Such a state of 
affairs could not last. The vigilantes came to life, for 
there were no courts to deal with such a condition. 
The work was thoroughly accomplished. In the 
first campaign betwen sixty and eighty rustlers were 
put under the sod. On one morning a single rail- 
road bridge had thirteen corpses swinging from it. 
The struggle for supremacy turned northward; it 
extended through years far beyond the limits of our 
story, and did not end until the reign of the rustler 
was done. " In the ten years from 1876 to 1886 the 

[348] 



OUTLAWS AND DESPERADOES 

vigilantes of the cattle country," according to 
Hough, " executed as many men in Nebraska, Da- 
kota, and Montana as have been legally executed by 
the law in any dozen States in all the time since 
then." 

General Lawlessness on the Plains 

Throughout the entire history of the Plains the 
bullying desperado of the town, and the crime- 
stained outlaw of the open, were made unduly con- 
spicuous. From the times when the half-breed 
Charles Bent and his band of ''dog soldiers" har- 
assed the Santa Fe Trail, until those later days 
when Sheriff Pat Garrett killed " Billy the Kid" at 
Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and the Dalton boys 
ran up against the rifles at Coffeeville, Kansas, the 
border beheld scenes of lawless, fiendish atrocity 
which have caused the many to forget that it was 
really peopled and won by law-abiding men. To 
enter into detail would result merely in a sickening 
record of robbed and wrecked stages, of burned 
caravans, of emigrants left utterly destitute in the 
wilderness, of mutilated dead bodies beside the 
trail, of savage, revengeful gun-fighting in bar- 
rooms or midnight streets, and the mention of names 
utterly without merit and better forgotten. Such 
brawls were but incidents of wild life, and the gath- 
ering together of such a heterogeneous society. Yet 
their record was a record of terror scarcely conceiv- 
able. " Billy the Kid," a mere boy of twenty-two 
when he fell, had killed in cold blood more than 
one man for each year of his miserable life. Others 

[349] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

there were well worthy to rank beside him in in- 
famy. Not a cow-town, or a border settlement from 
the Rio Grande to the Missouri but contained its 
*' bad men," its stories of desperate encounters, its 
graveyards where the short-lived heroes rested in 
their boots. Some had turned to open outlawry, and 
their hideous careers were ended by the rope of the 
vigilantes or the rifles of some sheriff's posse; others 
died before the quick fire of cool-eyed city marshals, 
or by the lead of opponents in their own class. Let 
them lie and moulder into forgetfulness — "Bad 
Eye" Connelly, "Pistol" Hicks, Jim McCabe, 
" Three-fingered Pete," and all the rest of the riot- 
ous, blaspheming murderers. Dust they were, to 
dust they have returned, and to each in turn there 
came the moment and the man. The wages of sin 
is death. 

The Sheriffs and Marshals 

But there were other gun-fighters in those days: 
men enlisted on the side of right and order; men 
who met these boasting desperadoes on their own 
chosen ground and whipped them to a standstill; 
cool-eyed, resourceful, nervy men, making no blus- 
ter, but shooting straight — the sheriffs and marshals 
of the West. Among these were to be found scoun- 
drels and cowards, who were outlaws in disguise 
and sympathizers with criminals, but not many. 
Night after night, day after day, in the mad riot of 
the cow-towns, where every man was a walking 
arsenal ; or out on the wide Plains amid the loneli- 
ness and silence, these selected representatives of 

[350] 



OUTLAWS AND DESPERADOES 

law and order upheld their authority by their own 
strength of character, and their quickness on the 
trigger. They were the law, and their sole authority 
was the ready " gun" swinging on the hip. Angels 
were not chosen for such a post; in some cases they 
had stepped forth from the very ranks of the vicious, 
but they generally " made good," and proved worthy 
of the trust imposed. 

William Hickock, a Typical Upholder of the Law 

The names of such men are many, — not a few 
of them died in discharge of their duty, — but the 
most famous along the border was William Hic- 
kock (Wild Bill), who for years ruled the destiny 
of several of the hardest of the Kansas towns. The 
story of his life on the Plains, while more remark- 
able in some respects than that of others of his class, 
yet is sufficiently typical to bring before the reader 
a vivid pen-picture of the deeds and the men who 
then upheld law along the border. William Hic- 
kock was born in Illinois, but ran away from home 
when little more than a boy, and found his way out 
to the Plains. For fifteen years he lived among the 
trappers and hunters, sharing in their wild, free 
life; later he became teamster and scout; and when 
the Civil War broke out he promptly enlisted in the 
Union army. As a soldier he was almost constantly 
detailed as scout, and saw hard service both with the 
army of the Frontier, and the forces operating along 
the Mississippi. During this period his adventures 
between the lines, and hairbreadth escapes from 

[351] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

death, verged upon the marvellous, and he won the 
commendation of his superiors. At the close of the 
war Bill drifted again to the frontier, his nature 
craving the excitement of that kind of life. Here he 
accepted such work as came his way, but proved 
himself specially useful as a Government scout. 
Fame came to him, however, while officiating as 
marshal in such cow-towns as Abilene, Hays City, 
and Dodge. Cool, quiet in manner, never quarrel- 
some or under the influence of liquor, absolutely 
without fear, and a dead shot, he never failed to 
arrest or else to kill his man, and his name became 
a terror to the desperadoes of the entire border. 
How many fell before his unerring aim is not 
known, but he fought fair, and he stood for law and 
order. He was a necessity of his time and environ- 
ment. 

His Physique and Prowess 

In his prime Wild Bill was a magnificent speci- 
men of a man — a warm-hearted, loyal friend, but 
a persistent, tireless enemy. He stood six feet and 
an inch in his moccasins, perfectly proportioned, 
graceful and quick in movement, with remarkable 
depth and breadth of chest. His eyes were dark 
gray, their expression generally soft and pleasing but 
capable of hardening; his lips were thin and sensi- 
tive, the jaw not too square, the cheek bones slightly 
prominent. He wore his dark hair long, flowing to 
the shoulders. The border never produced a finer 
pistol-shooter, he being equally quick and accurate 
with either hand, firing apparently without aim, his 

[352] 



OUTLAWS AND DESPERADOES 

movements like lightning. But he shot to kill. For 
years he walked in the shadow of death, facing again 
and again the most dangerous men of the border, 
with hundreds eager to kill him on sight, ruling the 
hardest towns the world ever knew by his nerve and 
his quickness on the trigger. His two most famous 
affairs were his duel with Dave Tutt, and his single- 
handed fight with a desperado named M'Kandlas 
and nine of his gang. 

His Two Most Famous Fights 

The first affair occurred at Webb City, Mis- 
souri. Tutt, a discharged Confederate soldier and 
" bad man," deliberately picked a quarrel with 
Hickock on account of an old score. Bill tried to 
stave off trouble, but Tutt's friends kept daring him 
to fight, and finally the two men met in the public 
square. Both drew and fired at the same instant, 
but Bill, without waiting to see the result of his 
shot, wheeled, and, with smoking revolver covered 
Tutt's friends. Tutt fell, the bullet lodging in his 
brain. 

The fight with M'Kandlas was one of the most 
desperate encounters in the annals of the border. It 
ocurred in southern Nebraska, near the Kansas line. 
Bill being attacked by the ten armed men in a set- 
tler's cabin. The lone man killed five of them with 
gun and pistol before they succeeded in breaking in 
and getting hands upon him. Then it was fists and 
knives. His own description runs : 

" Two of them fired their bird guns at me, and then I felt 
[353] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

a sting run all over me. The room was full of smoke. Two 
got in close to me, their eyes glaring out of the clouds. One I 
knocked down with my fist. The second I shot dead. The 
other three clutched me, and crowded me onto the bed. I 
fought hard. I broke with my hand one man's arm. He had 
his fingers round my throat. Before I could get to my feet I 
was struck across the breast with the stock of a rifle, and I 
felt the blood rushing out of my nose and mouth. Then I got 
ugly, and remember that I got hold of a knife, and then it was 
all cloudy like, and I was wild, and I struck savage blows, 
following the devils up from one side to the other of the room 
and into the corners, striking and slashing until I knew that 
every one was dead. All of a sudden it seemed as if my heart 
was on fire. I was bleeding everywhere. I rushed out to the 
well and drank from the bucket, and then tumbled down in a 
faint." 

He had eleven buckshot in him, and was cut in 
thirteen places, but had wiped out the M'Kandlas 
gang. It was years later, and far up in the Black 
Hills, that Wild Bill was treacherously shot to 
death, the ball being fired into the back of his head 
as he sat at a card table. 



[354] 



CHAPTER VII 
FRONTIER SCOUTS AND GUIDES 

Some Famous Scouts 

THE West owes much to those hardy men who, 
usually from mere love of adventure, wan- 
dered alone or in small companies across the wilder- 
ness, ever in advance of the settlements and the 
troops, exploring the unknown, tracing nameless 
rivers, uncovering hidden water holes in the grim 
desert, penetrating to every nook and corner of the 
Great Plains and the mountains beyond, discover- 
ing the haunts of Indians, the routes which the 
wheels of caravans could follow with greatest safety, 
the best camping spots, the scattered places where 
wood and water were certain to be found. To such 
as these — the scouts and guides of the frontier — 
every prairie traveller, every incoming settler, every 
officer riding at the head of his troop and seeking 
the savage foe owed gratitude. 

The names of many of these men became re- 
nowned upon the Plains, and deserve remembrance 
by this generation. Such were Uncle John Smith, 
Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, James P. Beckwourth, 
Uncle Dick Wooton, Jim Baker, Lucian B. Max- 
well, Old Bill Williams, Tom Tobin, and James 
Hobbs, among the old-timers; and W. F. Cody, 
Wm. Hickock, California Joe, Dick Cherry, and 
Amos Chapman, of a later generation. By daring, 

[35s] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

endurance, resourcefulness, and constant devotion 
to duty these men have won fame that will endure in 
the history of the Plains. Tireless as the Indian, 
knowing their traits, characteristics, habits; reading 
the secrets of the Plains like an open book, careless 
of personal danger, and inured to loneliness, they 
remained on the skirmish line of civilization, and of 
many of them the fate is unknown. 

A Few Whose Fame will Endure 

The scouts of the frontier were numerous, yet in 
actual service only a few proved really valuable. 
Those who rose out of the ruck did so through sheer 
ability, and have been honored in the reports of the 
army officers they guided in arduous campaigns of 
war or exploration. They became famous through- 
out the length and breadth of the frontier. It was 
the reports of Fremont that lifted Kit Carson from 
obscurity; Custer made the fame of California Joe; 
Merritt and Carr gave wide spread to the reputa- 
tions of Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill. The names 
of these few Plains celebrities now belong to the 
history of their country. 

John Smith 

There were few plainsmen who did not know 
one or all of these great pathfinders, and deem the 
knowledge worthy of a boast. Uncle John Smith 
ranged from the Yellowstone to the Gila, and from 
the upper Missouri to the Rio Grande; not an In- 
dian tribe but had held him guest, scarcely a stream 

[356] 




A'^ 



^S^-ZU^^s^-^?-^^ 



>- 



THE FAMOUS SCOUT, TRAPPER, AND PLAINSMAN 



FRONTIER SCOUTS AND GUIDES 

along whose waters he had not trapped. In 1826, 
when a mere boy, he ran away from home and 
joined a party of Santa Fe traders, and ever after- 
wards the wilderness held him captive. He mar- 
ried a Cheyenne squaw, spoke four Indian dialects, 
besides French and Spanish, and ruled like an auto- 
crat the Indian trade of the Western Plains. As 
late as 1869, when he was an old man, he was one 
of Sheridan's most trusted guides, competent, tire- 
less, unerring as a bloodhound on the trail. His life 
had been one constant adventure ; and when in con- 
genial company he would recount for hours the 
stirring events of his career. His facial resem- 
blance to President Andrew Johnson was remark- 
able, and led to some amusing incidents. 

Kit Carson 

Kit Carson was on the Plains and in the moun- 
tains for forty-two years, and his name will always 
stand forth preeminent among famous frontiersmen. 
In turn a trader, a hunter, a free trapper, a scout 
for the army, a guide to explorers and to travelling 
caravans, and finally a Colonel of Volunteer Cav- 
alry, he had a wider experience than any of his 
contemporaries. His was a life of hairbreadth es- 
capes, of endless adventure, marvellous activity and 
usefulness. For eight years he was the hunter at 
Bent's Fort, and all the Plains Indians, as well as 
the Utes of the mountains, knew him well, and 
feared and respected him. Many a time did he 
avert war by his influence in the lodges ; but when it 

[357] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

came, no man ever met it more promptly. As a 
sign-talker he had few if any superiors, and as a 
trailer he very seldom lost track of those pursued. 
Inman, who knew him well, thus sums up his char- 
acteristics : 

" Carson's nature was made up of some very noble attributes. 
He was brave but not reckless; a veritable exponent of Chris- 
tian altruism, and as true to his friends as the needle to the pole. 
Under the average stature, and rather delicate-looking in his 
physical proportions, he was, nevertheless, a quick, wiry man, 
with nerves of steel, and possessing an indomitable will. He 
was full of caution, but showed a coolness in the moment of 
supreme danger that was good to witness." 

While he was visiting at Fort Lyon, Colorado, 
in 1868, an artery in his neck was ruptured, causing 
his death. Thus passed away the most famous 
frontiersman of the Great Plains. His burial place 
was at Taos, New Mexico, where he had long made 
his home. 

Jim Bridger 

Jim Bridger began his experience on the Plains 
with Ashley's great trapping expedition. During 
his years of frontier life he became the peer of the 
best among mountaineers and plainsmen. Unedu- 
cated by the schools, ignorant of all social conven- 
tionalities, he yet possessed a heart overflowing with 
the milk of human kindness, was generous, honest, 
and loyal to his friends. His most important serv- 
ices were rendered as scout and guide during the 
early surveys for the first transcontinental railroad, 
and for a number of years he was in Government 
employ guiding army detachments in Indian cam- 

[3S8] 



FRONTIER SCOUTS AND GUIDES 

paigns. No man of his time knew the northern 
Plains, or the mountains beyond so thoroughly as 
he, and it was his eyes that first looked out upon 
Great Salt Lake the Winter of 1824-25. Bridger, 
after a life of wild adventure, transcending fiction, 
died and was buried at Westport, Missouri. 

The resemblance of John Smith to President 
Andrew Johnson has been mentioned above. Inman 
relates that once, when the President in his " swing 
around the circle" had arrived at St. Louis and was 
riding through the streets of that city in an open 
barouche, he was pointed out to Bridger, who hap- 
pened to be in the city. But the venerable guide 
and scout, with supreme disgust depicted on his 
countenance at the idea of any one attempting to de- 
ceive him, only exclaimed: " Hell! Bill, you can't 
fool me! That 's Old John Smith." On another 
occasion, discovered by a friend sitting on a dry- 
goods box in one of St. Louis's narrow streets, the 
old frontiersman thus relieved his feelings: "I've 
been settin' in this infernal canyon ever sence 
mornin', waitin' fer some one to come along an' 
invite me to take a drink. Hundreds o' fellers has 
passed both ways, but none of 'em has opened his 
head. I never seen sich a onsociable crowd." 

Bridger acted as guide for Sir George Gore on 
his famous hunting trip in 1855-57, during 
which the party killed over forty grizzly bears, 
twenty-five hundred buffalo, and an unknown quan- 
tity of smaller game. Gore had with him fifty 
helpers, including secretaries, steward, cooks, fly- 

[359] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

makers, dog-tenders, and personal servants. His 
was one of the strangest outfits ever seen on the 
Plains. During their trip the baronet gave Bridger 
a copy of the adventures of Baron Munchausen to 
read. After painfully deciphering the text the 
frontiersman confessed that he 'd be " dog'oned ef he 
swallowed everything that thar Baron Munchausen 
said," and thought he was a "darned liar"; yet he 
acknowledged that some of his own adventures 
would be equally marvellous " if writ down in a 
book." 

Jim Baker 

Jim Baker ranked well up with these others as 
plainsman and mountaineer. Next to Carson he 
was Fremont's most valued scout. An lUinoisan, 
he was eighteen years old before he appeared on the 
Plains as an employee of the American Fur Com- 
pany, So far as known, he was never again east of 
the Missouri. Having married a Snake Indian, and 
passed much of his life in the company of savages, 
he imbibed many of their superstitions and habits. 
When ofif duty he drank heavily, and wasted the 
money won by his successful trapping. Bent's Fort 
on the Arkansas became his chosen outfitting point, 
but for months at a time he would disappear in the 
wilderness. So successful was he in snaring wild 
game that in a single season he sold nine thousand 
dollars' worth of fur. The stories told of his prowess 
in fight are numberless, and his friend General 
Marcy, of the United States Army, made the old 

[360] 



FRONTIER SCOUTS AND GUIDES 

fellow famous in the pages of his books on border 
life. 

Jim Beckwourth and Others 

Jim Beckwourth was one of the odd characters 
of the wild West. He was a niulatto of medium 
height but great muscular power, and no man in 
mountains or on Plains ever led a more adventurous 
life. He was hunter, trapper, trader, scout, and In- 
dian-fighter, and, being a born leader of men, he 
became head-chief of a great tribe of savages, the 
Crows. Historians have, seen him from vastly dif- 
ferent viewpoints. Parkman wrote: "He is a 
ruffian of the worst class; bloody and treacherous, 
without honor or honesty; such, at least, is the char- 
acter he bears on the Great Plains. Yet in his case 
the standard rules of character fail; for though he 
will stab a man in his slumber, he will also do the 
most desperate and daring acts." This statement is 
not upheld by those who knew him intimately — 
Carson, Maxwell, and the Bents. To them he ap- 
peared the most honest of all Indian traders, and a 
man to be trusted in any emergency. He first went 
to the mountains with Ashley in 1825. It is true 
that his fame largely rests on his published biog- 
raphy, some of it no doubt true, but much going to 
prove him a ''charming liar." 

Uncle Dick Wooton passed his life on the Plains 
in the neighborhood of the Santa Fe Trail, along 
which he first passed at nineteen as teamster in a 
trading caravan. He became noted as an Indian- 

[361] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

fighter, and from his intimate knowledge of the 
entire Southwest. Bent's Fort was his rendezvous 
for several years, where he was a great favorite, not 
only because of his prowess in the field, but because 
of his fund of anecdote about the camp-fire. His 
earliest encounter with Indians occurred at the cross- 
ing of Pawnee Fork, and later he had another se- 
vere fight on the same spot. In 1866 Wooton built 
a log house in the Raton Pass, and remained there 
until his death, collecting toll from those travellers 
who used the road he had made across the moun- 
tains. Frequently he was obliged to extract pay at 
the muzzle of his rifle, but very few ever got by him 
scot-free. He died at the age of ninety, and many 
of his adventures have found record in the pages of 
Inman. 

Old Bill Williams, the guide who led Fremont 
astray on his last expedition, was a unique char- 
acter. He had been a Methodist preacher in the 
East, but was on the Plains long before Kit Carson 
left the Missouri. No man knew the mountains 
better, unless it was Jim Bridger. A man of educa- 
tion, he easily mastered the different languages of 
the tribes, but to both Indians and Mexicans he re- 
mained an unsolvable riddle and a terror. As a 
trader he was a total failure, and many of his com- 
panions considered him partially insane, although 
a brave, warm-hearted, and generous man. He was 
finally killed by Indians. 

James Hobbs had a remarkable career during 
his long life on the frontier. He was for years a 

[362] 




JAMES P. BECKWOURTH 

AN EARLY CALIFORNIAN FAMOUS AS TRAPPER AND SCOUT 



FRONTIER SCOUTS AND GUIDES 

prisoner among the Indians, a soldier in the war 
with Mexico, an officer in the revolt against Maxi- 
milian, an Indian-fighter, miner, trapper, trader, 
and Government scout. 

Tom Tobin was the last of these famous trappers 
and hunters of the old regime to pass away. He 
was a quick-tempered Irishman, under the average 
stature and red-faced, always ready for fight or 
frolic. He was present at most of the famous In- 
dian battles of the early explorers ; but his greatest 
achievement was killing the notorious Mexican 
bandit Espinosa in a desperate hand-to-hand con- 
flict in 1864. 

William F. Cody and Amos Chapman 

William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) and Amos 
Chapman were the best-known bordermen of later 
days, and were worthy to rank with those mentioned 
above. Cody began his career on the Plains as a 
mere boy on a caravan trip to Santa Fe, became 
teamster on a "bull" train, driver on the Overland, 
and Pony Express rider before he was of age. As 
early as 1863 he was employed as guide and scout 
for an expedition against the Kiowas and Co- 
manches, and later carried despatches straight 
through the hostile Indian country between Forts 
Lyon and Earned. A great many of his adventures, 
including his desperate duel with Yellow Hand, a 
Cheyenne chief, have been told in the books in 
which he collaborated with Colonel Inman. His 
famous appellation was won during employment as 

[363] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

a hunter for the Kansas Pacific Construction Com- 
pany in 1867-68. In less than eighteen months he 
killed nearly five thousand buffalo, which were 
eaten by the twelve hundred workmen employed in 
track-laying. 

Amos Chapman was fifteen years in Govern- 
ment employ as scout on the Plains. During this 
life of constant peril and exposure one of his most 
heroic acts occurred while he was bearing de- 
spatches for General Miles from his camp on 
McClellan Creek to Camp Supply, I. T. The de- 
spatch party consisted of six men. Early in the 
morning, after a hard night's ride, they were sud- 
denly attacked near the Washita River by a band of 
over a hundred Kiowa and Comanche warriors. 
Colonel Dodge thus describes what followed: 

" The first intimation of the presence of Indians was a 
volley which wounded every man of the party. In an instant 
the Indians appeared on all sides. Dismounting and abandoning 
their horses, the brave band moved together for a hundred yards 
to a buffalo wallow, a shallow natural depression in the prairie. 
Chapman and Dixon, being but slightly wounded, worked hard 
and fast to deepen this depression, and as soon as it was suffi- 
ciently deep to afford some cover it was occupied and the work 
continued from within. Smith had fallen from his horse at the 
first fire and was supposed to be dead. . . . 

" Chapman said, ' Now, boys, keep those infernal redskins off 
me, and I will run down and pick up Smith, and bring him back 
before they can get at me.' Laying down his rifle, he sprang out 
of the buffalo wallow, ran with all speed to Smith, seized and 
attempted to shoulder him. ... * I laid down,' said Chap- 
man, 'and got his chest across my back, and his arms around my 
neck and then got up with him. It was as much as I could do 
to stagger under him, for he could n't help himself a bit. By the 

[364] 



FRONTIER SCOUTS AND GUIDES 

time I had got twenty or thirty yards, about fifteen Indians came 
for me at full speed of their ponies.' " 

The boys in the buffalo wallow opened on the Indians and 
Amos ran for it. 

" ' When I was in about twenty yards of the wallow/ he 
continued, 'a little old scoundrel that I had fed fifty times rode 
almost on to me and fired. I fell with Smith on top of me, but 
as I did n't feel pain, I thought I had stepped in a hole. The 
Indians could n't stay around there a minute, the boys kept it 
red-hot, so I jumped up, picked up Smith, and got safe in the 
wallow. Amos,' said Dixon, ' you are badly hurt.' ' No, I am 
not,' said I. ' Why, look at your leg,' and sure enough, the leg 
was shot off just above the ankle-joint, and I had been walking 
on the bone dragging the foot behind me, and in the excitement 
I never knew it, nor have I ever had any pain in my leg to this 
day.' " 



[365] 



CHAPTER VIII 

MUSHROOM TOWNS 

General Description 

AN INTERESTING phenomenon of Plains 
settlement, perhaps without parallel else- 
where, were those strange towns which sprang up 
in a night wherever the advancing railway paused, 
and which passed away as suddenly with the further 
extension of the rails, leaving scarcely a trace be- 
hind. The peculiarity of the conditions under 
which these earliest overland roads were constructed 
made such mushroom towns inevitable, and the na- 
ture of their population served to render them suf- 
ficiently picturesque. Stretching boldly forth into 
an uninhabited and barren waste, to which every 
pound of material required and every man em- 
ployed had to be transported, the end of the track, 
both on the Union Pacific and the Kansas Pacific, 
became of necessity a great temporary distributing 
point, full of unceasing activity and a feverish, 
throbbing life. Money was plentiful, and no re- 
straints of home kept the restless inhabitants within 
bounds. Gamblers, saloon-keepers, and dissolute 
women eagerly flocked to each temporary terminus, 
certain of reaping a quick harvest. Shacks and 
tents, rude structures of board, or even sod, sprang 
up like magic on the bare prairie, and scarcely had 
the decree gone forth that here the railroad would 

[366] 



MUSHROOM TOWNS 

pause for awhile, ere the spot teemed with human- 
ity, and a new "city" appeared in the twinkling of 
an eye. Few of such cities survived ; scarcely half 
a dozen of them yet remain. They all flourished a 
month, some of them six, revelling in sin and law- 
lessness, only to pass away utterly from the face of 
the earth. 

Historians have never considered this chapter 
of frontier life worthy their pens, yet it deserves 
picturing as illustrative of how civilization first 
penetrated the wilds. A writer in Harper's Maga- 
zine, who had been connected with the building of 
the Kansas Pacific, embodied his remembrance of 
those~days in an article from which I extract much 
material. 

Coyote 

Ours the task to rescue from oblivion towns 
which were, but are not. Coyote was such a town, 
the temporary terminus of the railroad in 1868. 
Nothing could be more dreary than its environ- 
ment. On every side the monotonous rolling Plains 
meeting the cloudless sky. The town itself was a 
crazy street of shanties; its inhabitants a mob of 
uncouth men flung down among the buffaloes. 
Where they originally came from was a problem, 
but the majority had drifted into Coyote from some 
other mushroom town a hundred miles to the east. 
They brought with them their dwellings, their 
stores, the few necessaries of life. The new home 
was made in a day, and was old in a night. Canvas 
saloons, sheet-iron hotels, sod dwellings, discarded 

[367] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

tin cans, and scattered playing-cards littered the 
ground. The cards were apparently numberless and 
always in evidence. Says the writer in Harper's 
Magazine: 

"Before the breath of the north wind they would rise into 
air, the queens dancing like so many witches in effigy, as close 
over the smooth surface they fled south. A few moments, and 
the barren earth would be swept clean, while the pasteboards, 
accompanied by stray newspapers and old hats, were flutter- 
ing, like a flight of white birds, out of sight. Three days, the 
usual life of a full-grown prairie gale, might pass, and then, 
as the north wind met the forces of the south, the tenantless 
air became alive again. Far off on the heel of the vanquished 
and the crest of the victor wind, came the white-winged coveys 
of cards, like the curses of the proverb, on their way home to 
roost. At nightfall they had collected beside the track and 
among the houses, and were again as thick as leaves in autumn. 
Had it been possible for conscience to prick through a Coyote 
gambler's skin, how it might have gratified him to see the marked 
Jack that had fleeced the last stranger rise up like a grasshopper 
and fly south, beyond the possibility of becoming State's evi- 
dence! And how annoying to wake up, and find the knave 
again under his window!" 

Coyote lived its brief eventful life in the midst 
of the buffalo country. For a hundred miles in any 
direction carcasses disfigured the land. The meat, 
cut into strips or lying on sleds, "jerked" and mer- 
chantable, was everywhere. It could be had almost 
for a song. Occasionally a wild herd, stampeded 
by careless hunters, would dash directly through the 
town, bowling over tents in their terror, and creat- 
ing pandemonium among the surprised occupants. 
To many of the citizens such an occurrence was 
only second in interest to a dog-fight, and bets were 

[368] 



MUSHROOM TOWNS 

quite in form. The sporting proclivities of the 
place were especially aroused on one occasion when 
a veteran bufifalo bull tried in vain to fish out a 
frightened citizen from behind a log, where he had 
hurriedly taken refuge after a poor shot at the beast. 
Try as he would, the infuriated animal could only 
succeed in ripping the fellow's pants into rags, but 
with every thrust there came a yell which would 
have done credit to an Apache. Instead of inter- 
fering in the fun the manhood of Coyote placed bets 
on the result, cheering in turn for the bull or Sandy, 
with strict impartiality. 

Sheridan 

Coyote had a brief but merry life. The terminus 
moved forward to Sheridan. The change was eas- 
ily accomplished. In less than a week not a shack 
remained, only thousands of oyster and fruit cans 
marking the deserted spot. Sheridan, where the 
terminus remained longer, became a larger Coyote. 
It was named after the famous General, then sta- 
tioned at Fort Hays not far distant, and when that 
hero was finally introduced to his lusty namesake, 
he is said to have remarked that, as a seat of war, it 
strongly resembled the Shenandoah Valley, while 
the yelling and firing of the Irish mob of employees 
on pay-day reminded him of Stonewall Jackson's 
ragged battalions. Sheridan graced the side of a 
desolate ravine, with the yet more desolate Plains on 
every side. It was built complete in a month, but 
before the single street had even been surveyed the 

[369] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

necessity arose for a graveyard, and one was 
promptly located on a ridge overlooking the town. 
When any angry citzen threatened to give another 
a "high lot" he meant six feet of soil on that 
hillside. During the first week three moved in 
"with their boots on," and during the winter the 
list was swelled to twenty-six. 

Odd Characters 

Odd characters were attracted to such a com- 
munity as this, as flies to a sugar barrel. The cor- 
respondent of Harper's Magazine thus pictures two 
who deserve to be embalmed in history: 

"There was 'Neb, the devil's own.' Neb was an abbrevia- 
tion of Nebuchadnezzar, which title he won from taking so 
naturally to grass, or, more correctly, to the prairie, when it 
was necessary to hide on account of misdeeds. Had any one 
been interested enough to make weekly inquiries about Neb's 
whereabouts, the answer would generally have been, 'Out at 
grass.' On two occasions he assisted men to eternity without 
previously using a boot-jack. Once, when an Irish mob was 
celebrating pay-day. Neb ran out of a hotel opposite, and emptied 
sixteen shots from a Henry rifle among them. No one was 
killed, but the 'devil's own' found it necessary to go into exile 
on the back of a stray mule, followed for hundreds of yards by 
a howling mob and shower of bullets." 

Neb ended his glorious career finally at the 
hands of vigilantes. 

Another individual of prominence in Sheridan 
was " Ascension Stephen." According to our re- 
porter, — 

*' This worthy was a half-witted Millerite, who climbed the 
two buttes once or twice every month, with a saloon tablecloth 

[370] 



MUSHROOM TOWNS 

in his pocket that might answer for wrapper when the great 
trumpet should sound. Fine evenings were often spent by him in 
this weary and lonely waiting, and on one occasion he frightened 
the wits out of some drunken Irishmen by rushing down the 
hill toward them as they were returning from a wild debauch. 
So well did the tablecloth do duty on this occasion that, for the 
first time in months, the Irishmen reached their homes sober. A 
more effective temperance banner never fluttered in the breeze." 

Lynching 

Judge Lynch was well known in Sheridan, and 
the railroad trestle was a most convenient gallows 
tree. It was sure to bear monthly, and sometimes 
daily fruit. On more than one occasion passengers 
on the cars have drawn back in affright as they 
beheld staring up at them the face of some Texas 
Jack, or California Joe who had perished in his 
sins. Not that Sheridan was, either outwardly or 
inwardly, moral or law-abiding, but it was gener- 
ally recognized that there was a limit not to be 
passed without physical protest. As a rule morals 
were rather looked upon as articles of commerce. 
No one endeavored to possess any, unless money was 
to be made in that way. If any citizen abjured 
cards, women, and wine, he was pretty certain to 
have some other game under way which would cost 
his confiding fellows heavily. But it would be well 
for him to be far out on the prairie before his vic- 
tims awoke to the result. Vengeance was quick and 
sure, and vigilance juries brought In some queer 
verdicts in Judge Lynch's Sheridan court. The 
chronicler gives one instance where a man, arrested 
on suspicion, but without evidence enough against 

[371] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

him to convict, was indiscreet enough to call the 
court names. He promptly incurred the following 
unique sentence : " This yere court feels herself in- 
sulted without due cause, and orders the prisoner 
strung up for contempt.'' And strung up he was. 

Sham "Bad Men" 

The town fairly blossomed with " bad men," and 
the crop of " Bill " heroes was without apparent 
end. To be named by doting parents William was 
to assure any ambitious frontiersman future fame: 
he became Wild Bill, Apache Bill, or some other 
Bill by some magic in the atmosphere, a terror to 
tenderfeet, and generally a blasphemous, swagger- 
ing bully and coward. Our friend in Harper's 
Magazine thus pictures one such he knew in Sheri- 
dan. He was a teamster, named William Hobbs. 

"He could not have placed a bullet from his carbine in a 
barn door at a hundred paces. And yet, without any provoca- 
tion whatever, he seized upon the word California and wore it, 
although that wonderful State had never, to my certain knowl- 
edge, been favored by his presence. This man had not been cut 
out for a hero. His becoming one was in direct violation of 
nature's laws. He was fat, short of wind, red-faced and timid 
as a hare. As the frontiersman expressed it, having never lost 
any Indians he could not be induced by any consideration to find 
one. However, by lying in wait for tourists and correspond- 
ents, he often managed to get business as a guide. He had 
donned a suit of buckskins made in St. Louis, and would state 
to the gaping stranger, * My name 's California Bill yere; over 
thar it 's Tache, on account o' my fightin' the tribe.' He could 
not have told one of the latter from a Digger, yet soon the 
Eastern papers came back with thrilling descriptions of this 
noted scout and Indian-slayer. But I have known this dead 

[372] 



MUSHROOM TOWNS 

shot, to miss, four times in succession, a bison at fifty yards; 
and one occasion, having mistaken a Mexican herder for an 
Indian he fled so fast and far that he lost hat and pistol, and 
ruined his horse." 

Real "Bad Men" 

But do not let this incline you to believe there 
were not real "bad men" in Sheridan. The genu- 
ine article was there, and woe to the tenderfoot who 
thought otherwise. Both Cody and Hickock, the 
real Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill, walked those 
streets, cool, quiet fellows enough, but not the kind 
of men to play with, unless you wanted to die. And 
there was another kind as well, the typical frontier 
desperado, always in liquor and always quarrelsome. 
Tragedy was in the air, yet it scarcely afifected the 
orderly citizen who was content to attend strictly to 
his own business. The roughs usually fought it out 
among themselves. Writes this observer justly: 

"In all my residence upon the frontier, during which time 
sixty-two graves were filled by violence, in no case was the 
murder otherwise than a benefit to society. The dangerous 
class killed within its own circle, but never courted justice by 
shedding better blood. Orderly people looked on with something 
like satisfaction, as at wolves rending each other. The snarl 
was the click of a revolver, and the bite followed the bark. 
These were the men who gloried in snuffing out a candle, or a 
life, at thirty paces." 

An illustration occurred in the ending of two no- 
torious bullies of Sheridan, known locally as Gun- 
shot Frank and Sour Bill. From some cause 
unknown these worthies quarrelled, and decided to 
fight it out in spectacular fashion, to the delight of 

[373] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the crowd. Each armed himself with a revolver, 
shouldered a spade, and started off for the ridge. 
The plan was for each man to dig a grave for the 
other, then exchange places, and see which would 
have to be filled. However, before the work was 
half done, "Gunshot" made an impudent remark, 
and Bill promptly plugged him through the ab- 
domen. Balked of a good part of their anticipated 
enjoyment, the crowd fell upon " Sour," and one of 
them caved in his head with a spade. That night 
two men slept in the graves dug by their own hands. 

The Hotel at Sheridan 

Oh, those were great towns, gone forever from 
the face of the earth, yet lingering in memory! Who, 
that ever sought sleep in Sheridan's one hotel, could 
ever forget the experiment? Hastily constructed, 
so as to be moved at a moment's notice, every creak 
of a bed echoed from wall to wall. The partitions 
failed to reach the ceilings by a foot or two, and the 
slightest sound aroused the whole floor. A pistol 
shot in No. 47 was quite likely to disturb the peace- 
ful slumbers of the occupant of No. 15, and every 
" damn " in the thronged bar-room below caused the 
lodger to curl up in expectation of a stray bullet 
coming toward him through the floor. Under the 
window a mob howled, and a man in some distant 
apartment was struggling vainly to draw off his 
tight boot, skipping about on one foot amid much 
profanity. That the boot conquered was evident 
when the fellow crawled into the creaking bed. " If 

[374] 



MUSHROOM TOWNS 

the landlord wants them boots off, let him come an' 
pull 'em." You could lie there and hear every- 
thing that occurred. Every creak and stamp and 
snore was faithfully reported. Inside was hell ; out- 
side was Sheridan. 

But it has all passed away; it was a part of the 
life that was, but is no more forever. The " Bills" 
have gone the way of all flesh, and so has Sheridan. 
The train pauses an instant even now at the station 
bearing the name, but there is nothing visible ex- 
cept the solitary house of the railroad section hands. 
The hotel, the saloons, the shacks have all disap- 
peared, and about stretch the dull, dead Plains. 
Only up there on the hill, still in their boots, lie 
those whom the migrating Sheridan left behind in 
memory of those days that were. 



[375I 



CHAPTER IX 
IN 1870 

Changes Effected by the Railways 

BY THE end of the sixties the Great Plains pre- 
sented a new aspect. Over a large part of that 
vast area civilization had already come, and the 
war henceforth was to be with the forces of nature 
instead of unrestrained savagery. The lines of rail- 
way in operation the full length of Kansas and 
Nebraska, bringing in new settlers, and making pos- 
sible a swift consolidation of troops, had completely 
changed the aspect of the Indian country. Hostile 
alliance of the fighting tribes was no longer pos- 
sible, and one by one they were induced to go upon 
their reservations under guard. Indian war was not 
ended entirely, and trouble occurred with these 
wards of the nation for many years. The fierce 
fighting at Robinson, on the Rosebud, at Slim 
Buttes, and Wounded Knee were yet in the future, 
and the world was yet to shudder over the awful 
tragedy when the men of the Seventh Cavalry went 
down to death on the Little Big Horn. Yet the end 
was already in sight — tribal outbreaks might occur, 
but never again was a great Indian war possible. 
Men of the white race had won to themselves the 
Great Plains; their feet were securely planted on 

[376] 



IN 1870 

the prairies, and there was no turning back the on- 
coming tide. 

From battle against savage enemies the settlers 
turned now to conquering the pitiless forces of na- 
ture which sought to bar their progress. Foot by foot 
they won their way; by the plough and by tree- 
planting steadily pushing westward the reluctant 
rain-belt; utilizing the streams in projects of irriga- 
tion, and through the wondrous magic of labor, 
converting the barren desolation into countless 
farms and productive ranches. Villages sprang up 
along the lines of steel, and upon the banks of ne- 
glected water-courses; new names appeared upon 
the maps, and hardy settlers, eager for cheap land 
and glad of the opportunity for independent labor, 
spread out farther and farther amid the bluflfs until 
they even dared their fortunes on the open prairie. 
It was the birthtime of States, of great common- 
wealths, rich in manhood and womanhood, soon to 
be rich in all those material things which intelligent 
labor wrests from Mother Earth. 

The Advance of Kansas and Nebraska 

The tale of one section is the tale of all, except 
that emigrants naturally poured in more rapidly 
under the stimulus of railroads already constructed. 
Kansas and Nebraska advanced by leaps and 
bounds. In spite of droughts, the plague of grass- 
hoppers, the occasional Indian raids along the ex- 
posed borders, there was no marked cessation of the 
tide of immigration. Settlers became discouraged, 

[377] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

burned out, eaten out, driven out, but others as in- 
stantly took the vacant places, and ever the skirmish 
line advanced. The Platte and the Arkansas be- 
came lined with cities and towns, farms and pros- 
perous settlements. The Solomon, the Vermilions, 
the Republican, the Big and Little Blue, the Elk- 
horn, and the Niobrara, no longer flowed through 
desolate prairie, the haunts of wild beasts and primi- 
tive men, but watered tilled farms, and gave back in- 
crease to the husbandman. 

Dakota and Colorado 

In far Dakota the progress was slower, yet no 
less distinct. Settlements fringed the streams, and 
eager miners flocked to the unveiling mystery of the 
Black Hills. Little by little even the great fighting 
nation of the Sioux were compelled to yield up their 
chosen land to the resistless white invaders. The 
doom of the Indian was already plainly writ, the 
new chapter of development well under way. In 
Colorado the tide was beginning to sweep back 
from the golden mountains out upon the bordering 
Plains. The character of the population was chang- 
ing, and the steady plodding farmer was rising to 
an importance equal to that of the prospector and 
the delver after minerals. Life everywhere from 
river to mountain had assumed a new aspect; the 
old feverish border days had gone. Courts and law 
had become paramount; Judge Lynch and the vig- 
ilantes were superseded ; sweet-faced women smiled 
from the doorways, and little children played about 

[378] 



IN 1870 

the doorsteps. Civilization had laid its hand of 
power on all the hitherto wild scene, and content- 
ment and prosperity were coming to the prairies. It 
was a wonderful story, that of the marvellous years 
between 1865 and 1875; a story of growth, of hard- 
ship, of suffering manhood and womanhood; and 
it ended in a victory never to be forgotten, never 
to be lightly thought of. It is not easy to conquer 
a wilderness ; it is not accomplished by gloved hands 
and sweatless brow. It means days and nights of 
toil, sacrifice, privation, suffering, and peril. It 
means isolation and loneliness, hours of despair, and 
the gazing often into the stony eyes of defeat before 
natural obstacles yield to man's indomitable will. 
Here man is on the firing line, and must hold it at 
all cost. The right men were there ; from the upper 
Missouri to the Rio Grande they moved steadily 
forward, a thin but dauntless line, their ragged 
clothes as much a badge of honor as the red-coats 
that held the French horsemen at Waterloo, while, 
mile by mile, they transformed the barren desert 
into a garden of fertility, and won the world an 
empire. 

Disappearance of the Cattle Ranges and the Indian Trails 

It was not all done then ; it is not all done even 
now. For many a year the wide expanse of the 
Plains proper, lying between the utmost western 
advance of Kansas and Nebraska, and the backward 
sweep of the Colorado settlements, remained a 
waste. This high and almost level plateau defied 

[379] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

the farmer by its lack of sufficient rain-fall, and the 
seeming impossibility of irrigation. Only through 
long experiments of science did it begin to yield to 
the demands of men. Here the cattle ranged in 
vast herds, guarded by the remnant of that great 
army of cowboys who had once, and so short a time 
before, ruled the whole West as their own land. 
Already their glory had departed, and they were 
beholding the last glimpse of " free water and free 
grass." Here, also, were the Indian trails, no longer 
worn deep through the prairie sod, but growing 
ever more dim and indistinct. Now and then some 
tribe would break its bounds, and follow the old 
trail in a sudden mad foray; there would be burn- 
ing cabins along the uttermost frontier, a breaking 
of the thin white line, a cowboy dead and scalped 
in some lonely coulee, a short trail of destruction. 
But it was soon over with. A swift gathering of 
troops, a rally of settlers, a sharp fight, and the help- 
less red men were guarded back to the reservation 
from whence they came. 

The tide took new strength and rolled on, oblit- 
erating the old trails of savage feet, effacing the 
great ruts worn by the wheels of the speeding over- 
land or the slow-moving caravans, ploughing up 
the buffalo wallows, leaving us to guess where the 
express riders spurred their reeking ponies, or gal- 
lant troopers rode forward to their death. The end 
was inevitable, and by 1870 it could already be per- 
ceived. From then on it was but a question of time 
— and how short a time! Much that was pic- 

[380] 



IN 1870 

turesque, bizarre, and romantic vanished^but only 
to make room for the more important and lasting. 
" Home!" was the watchword of the new invading 
force, as, spreading out over rolling prairie and 
level Plain, fertile valley and arid desert, the toilers 
of the crowded East came pouring in to take pos- 
session of their own. Peace hath its victories no 
less renowned than those of war. 

Conquest of the Great American Desert 

It was a long, toilsome, and perilous journey 
from that far off time when Cabega de Vaca made 
his solitary pilgrimage amid the " hump-backed 
oxen," to the time of the invasion by Anglo-Saxon 
civilization. For three hundred and forty-three 
years those vast grim Plains had been the scenes 
of struggle; the sun of midday and the stars of mid- 
night had watched the slow transformation. The 
marching of troops under three banners ; the desper- 
ate battles amid the dreary buttes ; the slow, sullen 
retreat of savagery; the stern advance of silent, per- 
sistent frontiersmen; the slow-rolling caravans 
piercing the wilderness; the daring riders spurring 
their horses across the wide Plain ; the victim sob- 
bing in torture; the lost traveller praying in 
famine; the white, dead faces upturned to the piti- 
less sky — all that had been and gone. And then, 
out of the East they came to take possession; over 
the long miles, across the rivers and the prairies, 
came the conquering Anglo-Saxons — men, women, 
children — armed with the plough and the spade, 

[381] 



THE GREAT PLAINS 

animated by the dogged resolution which is the 
inheritance of their race, thrilling to the thought of 
home, and to the passion for possession. The hour 
and the man had come; the Great American Desert 
was a thing of the past. Le Rot est mort:vive le Roi! 

The End. 



[382] 



INDEX 



ABB 

Abbott-Downing Co., builders of 

the Concord coaches, 202 
Abilene, Kan., 317, 342, 352 
Adams, D., 77 

Adams, , fur-trader, 89 

Albuquerque, N. M., 48, 194 

Alexander, Col., 158 

Algonquin Indian linguistic stock, 

31, 35 
American Fur Company, 26, 105, 

107, 142, 360 
Anza, Capt., 132 
Apache Canyon, 171 
Apache Indians, 205, 206, 236, 279, 

323 
Arapahoe tribe, 31, 32, 35, 38-40, 

53, 84, 86, 95, 96, 118, 169, 212, 

228, 231, 236-238, 240, 25s, 260, 

261, 279, 288, 323 
Aricara tribe, 34-36, 65, 83, 87, 88, 

92, 99, 100, 102, 105, 106, 108 
Arickaree River, 260, 264, 272, 282 
Arizona, 172, 175, 325 
Arkansas River, 24, 26, 31, 36, 38, 

39, 43, 49, 55, 57, 58, 7i-74, 77, 
78, 82, 84, 94, 95, 102, 108, iio- 

113, 115, 117-119, 123-125, 127, 
128, 147, 155, 156, 160, 165, 167, 
168, 189, 212, 227, 231, 234, 237, 
272, 297, 298, 360, 378 

Armijo, Gov., of Santa Fe, 128, 137, 
171, 172, 

Armstrong, Keno, stage driver, 201 

Arrow Rock, Mo., 112 

"Ascension Stephen," border char- 
acter, 370 

Ash Creek, 123 

Ash Hollow, Neb., 189, 229 

Ashley, William H., 87, 102, 104, 
106,114,358,361 



BEN 

Assiniboine Indians, 59, 106 

Assiniboine River, 59 

Astor, John Jacob, 86 

Astoria, Oregon, 86, 105 

Atajo, or pack-train, 134 

Atchison, Kan., 176, 179, 181, 199, 
200, 301, 308 

Atchison, David R., 305 

Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe 
Railroad, 125 

Atkinson, Col. Henry, 76 

Aubrey, Francis Xavier, Pony Ex- 
press rider, 224 

"Audubon and His Journals," 93 

Ayre, Lieut., 235 

Back Bone Ridge, Kan., 301 
Bad lands, 19, 60, 238 
Bad River, 92 

Baird, — ; , trader, no, 123 

Baker, Jim, guide, 153, 355, 360 
Ballard Falls, 187 
Bancroft, H., quoted, 88, 151 
Bartlett, Commissioner, 175 

Bascom, — , 288 

Battle Creek, Black Hills country, 

151 
Beauharnais, Governor, 59 
Beaver Creek, 263, 274, 282, 283 
Becknell, William, 112, 113, 115 
Beckwourth, James P., 87, 95, 105, 

355, 361 
Beecher, Lieut. Frederick H., 262, 

268 
Belden, George P., 211 
Bell, Lieut. David, 206, 207 
Bell, Capt. John R. 77-79 
Bell, Maj., Seventh Cavalry, 279 
Bellevue (trading-post), 91 
Benavides, Spanish historian, 130 



[385] 



INDEX 



BEN 

Bent brothers, 95 

Bent, Charles, 116, 117, 207, 208, 
226, 349, 360 

Bent, Col. William, 96, 208, 361 

Bent, W. W., 231 

Bent's Fort, 24, 95, 96, 116, 125, 
165, 168, 170, 189, 208, 212, 231, 
232, 357, 360, 362 

Bidwell's company of California set- 
tlers, 144 

Bienville, French explorer, 54 

Big Arkansas River, 46 

Big Blue River, 186, 378 

Big Cheyenne River, 86 

"Big Dry," 67 

Big Horn Range, 60, 150, 242, 243 

Big Horn River, 83, 100, 239 

Big Piney Creek, 243, 246 

Big Sand Creek, 26 

Big Sandy River, 187 

Big Sioux River, 34, 91 

Big Timbers of the Arkansas, 24 

Big Vermilion River, 186 

Bigelow, Kan., 186 

"Billy the Kid," desperado, 349 

Bingham, Lieut., 245 

Bird, , of the Hudson Bay 

Company, 105 ' 

Bismarck, N. Dak., 59, 62 

Bissonette, , fur-trader, 89 

Bitter Root Range, 68 

Black Fork, 158 

Black Hills, 19, 23, 34, 35, 60, 86, 
92, 150, 151, 237, 238, 299, 354, 

378 
Black Jack, Kan., 309 
Black Kettle, 262, 272, 273, 278-280, 

284, 286 
Black Vermilion River, 186 
Blackfeet nation, 32, 84, 107 
Blacksnake Hills (St. Joseph, Mo.), 

91 
Blackwell, , fur-trader, 89, 

94 
Blue Lodge, Kansas secret society, 

302 
Blue River, 182, 294 



CAL 

Blue Springs, 116 

Bonneville, Capt. E. L., 89, 105, 152 

Boone, , fur-trapper, 105 

Booth, Capt. Henry, 284, 285 
Boots Hill, Julesburg cemetery, 345 
"Boston," Pony Express rider, 220 

Boudeau, , fur-trader, 89 

Bourgmont, French explorer, 55, 

56,90 
Bowers, Sergeant, 245 
Box Elder Creek, Colo., 235 
Brady, , of Brady Island, 

188 
Brady Island, 187, 188 
Brayton, , of Union Pacific 

Company, 328 
Brazos River, 24, 38, 49, 160 
Bridger, James, 93, 98, 104, 152, 

153, 185, 355, 358-360, 362 
"Broadhorn" record, Santa Fe 

Trail, 197 

Broadus, , trader, 125 

Brown, Capt., 245, 246, 248, 250 
Brown, John, 307-309, 311 
Brown, J. C, 118 
Brown, , conductor on mail 

coach line, 209 
Brule Sioux Indians, 229 

Bryant, , trader, 127 

Buchanan's last message carried by 

Pony Express riders, 223 
Buckland's, 222 
Buffalo Bill, see Cody, W. F. 
Buflfaloes, 25, 26, 42, 43, 47-49, 168, 

381 

"Bull-teams" on the Plains, 89 

Burr, Aaron, 75 

Burrows, , and family, 144 

Butterfield, , of the "South- 
ern Overland Stage" line, 194, 
200, 217 

Cabin Creek, 234 
"Caches, The," 123 
Caddoan Indian linguistic stock, 

31,32,34 
Calhoun, Neb., 91 



[386] 



INDEX 



CAL 

California, 82, 87, 97, loi, 143, 144, 
146, 147, 154, iSS, 172, 174-176, 
183, 185, 215, 216, 219, 299, 316 

Calitornia Joe, scout and guide, 

276, 355, 356 
Camp Centre, at the forks of the 

Kansas River, 231 
Camp Floyd, 220 
Camp Supply, 274, 280, 287, 288, 

364 
Campbell, Robert, fur-trader, 89, 

104 
Canadian River, 24, 49, 78, 115, 

117, 127, 205, 231, 275, 286, 316 
Cannon on the Plains, 106, 114, 169 
Cannon Ball River, 35 
Canon City, Colo., 73, 74 
Caravan Grove, 186 
Carpenter, Col., 271, 282-284 
Carr, Col. Eugene A., 282-284, 356 
Can eta, 133 
Carrington, Col. Henry B., 242, 243, 

245-248, 251 
Carson City, Nev., 220 
Carson, Kit, 89, 116, 126, 129, 153, 

154, 206, 355-358, 361, 362 

Carson, , fur-trapper, 105 

Casement, Gen., 332 
Castaneda, Pedro, 47, 48, 130 
Catholic missionaries to Oregon, 

143 
Cattle brands, 346 
Cattle-stealing, 346, 347 
Cattle trade, 314-325, 335-344, 346 
Central Pacific Railroad, 329 
Chaboneau, interpreter with Lev^'is 

and Clark Expedition, 66 
Chamberlain, S. Dak., 92 

Chambers, , trader, no, 123 

Chaplain, , trapper, 84 

Chapman, Amos, 355, 363-365 
Chavez, Don Antonio Jose, 129 
Cherry Creek, 297 
Cherry, Dick, 355 
Cherry River, 92 
Cheyenne Bottoms, 207 
Cheyenne River, 92 



COL 

Cheyenne tribe, 31, 35, 96, 118, 178, 
212, 228, 230, 231, 235-239, 255, 
259, 261, 262, 279, 287, 288, 323 

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific 
Railroad, 327 

Chicago, Union Pacific Company 
organized at, 328 

Chickasaw Bluflf, on the Mississippi, 

44 

Chihuahua, Mexico, 75, 164 

Chimney Rock, 189 

Chittenden, Hiram M., 81, 103, 107, 
115-117, 120, 124, 125, 184, 185, 
188 

Chivington, Col., 234, 236, 237 

Chouteau, A. P., 94, in 

Chouteau, Francis G., 90 

Chouteau Island, 118, 119 

Chouteau, Pierre, 38 

Chouteau's trading house, 154 

Cimarron Crossing, 123, 168, 261 

Cimarron Desert, 22, 49, 113, 118 

Cimarron River, 58, 78, 102, 113, 
125,126,137,316 

Cimarron Springs, 126 

Civil War, its bearing on the devel- 
opment of the Plains, 176, 196, 
200, 208, 212, 225, 227, 233, 237, 
239, 240, 262, 313, 316, 327 

Clark, Capt. William, 62, 70, 84 

Claymore, , fur-trader, 89 

Cliff, Charles, Pony Express rider, 
223 

Cloud Peak, Big Horn Range, 243 

"Coasts of the Platte," 187 

Cody, W. F. (Buffalo Bill), 210, 220- 
222,284,355,356,363,373 

Coffeeville, Kan., 349 

Coleman, , Kansas squatter, 

307 
Collins, Lieut. -Col., 213 

Colorado, 18, 24, 58, 71, 73, 148, 212, 
228, 233, 234, 236, 237, 260, 261, 
297, 298, 319, 336, 341, 378, 379 

Colorado City, 297 

Colorado River, 48 

Colter, John, 83, 105 



[3«7] 



INDEX 



COL 

Columbia, Mo., 117 

Columbia River, 68, 144, 155, 174, 
182, 185, 190, 212 

Columbus, Christopher, 41 

Columbus, Neb., 50 

Comanche tribe, 31, 38-40, 49, 55- 
57, 96, 102, 118, 119, 123, 126, 
127, 156, 169, 226, 228, 231, 234, 
236,279,288,323,363,364 

''Commerce of the Prairies," 122 

Concord coach, 202 

Conductor, Kan., 124 

Conestoga wagons, 181 

Connelly, "Bad Eye," desperado, 

350 
Connor, Gen., 239 
Coon Creek, 123 
Cooper, Col. Braxton, 113-115 

Corbin, , scout and guide, 276 

Coronado, Francisco Vasquez, 45- 

50, 120, 130, 132 
Cortez's introduction of the horse, 

131 
Cottonwood, 211 
Cottonwood Creek, 123 
Council Bluffs, 37, 76, 91, 147, 179, 

290, 327-329, 33^^ 
Council Grove, 117, 122, 123, 125, 

294 
Council Grove, forest of, on the 

Neosho River, 24 
Court House Rock, 189 
Cow Creek, 123, 129 

Cowboys, 314-325, 33^-343 
Coyote, railroad construction town, 

367-369 

Craig, , fur-trader, 89 

Crooks, , fur-trader, 86, 105 

Cross Timbers, 24 

Crow Indians, 106, 361 

Cummings, Enoch, stage driver, 201 

Cummings, Gov., 159 

Custer, Lieut. -Col. George A., 274- 

281, 286-288, 356 



Dakota tribe, 33 

Dalton boys, desperadoes, 349 



DOR 
Day, John, fur-trader, 105 
Dayton, Nev., 220 
De Coursy, Lieut., 169 
Deep Creek, 220 
Deer Stand, 238 
De la Harpe, Benard, 54, 55 
De la Verendrye, Pierre Gaultier de 

Varennes, and his sons, 58-61 
De Moscoco, Luis 45, 46 
De Munn, Julius, 94, iii 
De Nizza, Fray Marcos, 46 
Denver, Colo., 38, 78, 94, 176, 181, 

197, 200, 209, 213, 235, 237, 261, 

295, 297 

Denver, Gen. John W., 312 

De Onate, Juan, 133 

De Padilla, Fray Juan, 49, 50 

De Pineda, Spanish explorer, 41 

"Desert, The Great American," 

296, 299, 321, 381, 382 

De Smet, Father P. J., 143, 184 

Des Moines River, 34 

De Soto, Fernando, 44-46 

Desperadoes, 344-347 

De Vaca, Alvar Nunez Cabeja, 41- 
44, 46, 130, 381 

Dey, , of Union Pacfic Com- 
pany, 328 

Diamond Grove, 117 

Diamond Springs, 123 

Diaz, Bernal, 131 

Dickson, , trapper from 

Illinois, 83 

Digger Indians, 105 

Divide, The Great, 68 

Dixon, , 364, 365 

Docampo, Andres, 49, 50 

Dodge City, Kan., 124, 317, 342, 

352 
Dodge, Col., 26, 258, 364 
Dodge, Gen. G. M., 327, 328, 330, 

332, 334 
"Dog soldiers," 208, 349 
Dogs as pack animals, 130 
Doniphan, Col., 164, 166, 172 
Donner party, 175 
Dorantes, Spanish explorer, 42 



[388] 



INDEX 



DOU 

Dougherty, H., 77 

Douglas's, Capt., party, 151 

Dow, Charles M., 307 

Downing, Maj., 235 

Du Bois River, 63 

Dunn, Lieut. Clark, 235 

Dutch Henry's Crossing, Kan., 309 

Du Tisuc, French explorer, 54 



EbbertS, , fur-trader, 89 

Eel Is, Mr. and Mrs., 142 
Eighteenth Infantry, 251 
Eighth Kansas Infantry, 237 
Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, 274 
Eleventh Kansas Regiment, Com- 
pany L, 284 
Eleventh Ohio Cavalry, 238, 239 
Elkhorn River, 145, 378 
Ellinwood, 123 
Elliott, Maj., 275, 280, 281, 286 

Ellison, , trader, 127 

Ellsworth, Kan., 317, 342 
El Paso, Tex., 194 
Emigrant Aid Associations, 300 
Emory, Lieut. W. H., 165, 171 

Escudero, , Mexican trader, 

116 
Espinosa, Mexican bandit, 363 
Example, Kan., 124 

Fetterman, Capt. W. J., 245-250, 
252 

Fifth Cavalry, 237, 282, 284 

Fifth Infantry, 157 

First Colorado Cavalry, 234, 237 

First Dragoons, 165, 230 

First Missouri Cavalry, 165 

First Ohio Cavalry, 238 

Fisher, , frontiersman, 246, 

250 

Fitzgerald, , with Maj. Hen- 
ry's expedition, 98 

Fitzpatrick, , fur-trader, 104 

Flathead Indians, 68, 143 

Flowers, Lem, division agent on mail 
coach line, 209, 210 

Floyd, Sergt. Charles, 64 



FOR 



Fontaine City, 297 
Fontaine-qui-Bouille River, 297 

Forbes, , 171 

Forks of the Platte River, 77, 188 
Forsyth, Col. George A. ("Sandy"), 

161-163, 177, 255, 262-271, 282 
Fort Atkinson, 100, 160 
Fort Belknap, 160 
Fort Benton, 106 
Fort Berthold, 160 
Fort Brasseaux, 92 
Fort Bridger, 144, 150, 158, 190 
Fort Caspar, 251 
Fort C. F. Smith, 242 
Fort Chadbourne, 160 
Fort Churchill, 220 
Fort Clark, 90 
Fort Cobb, 287 
Fort Defiance, 92 
Fort Dodge, 123, 274 
Fort Garland, 234 
Fort Gibson, 95 
Fort Harker, 261 
Fort Hays, 369 
Fort John, 190 
Fort Kearney, 160, 175, 176, 243, 

251, 252, 259, 296 
Fort Kiowa, 92, 99, 100 
Fort Lancaster, 160 
Fort Laramie, 94, 160, 190, 209, 

228, 230, 231, 236, 237, 239, 242 
Fort La Reine, 60 
Fort Earned, 232-236, 363 
Fort Leavenworth, 141, 157, 165, 

234, 288, 296 
Fort Lisa, 91, 290 
Fort Lookout, 92 
Fort Lupton, 94 
Fort Lyon, 232, 234, 358, 363 
Fort Massachusetts, 228 
Fort Orleans, 56, 57, 90 
Fort Osage, 90, 115, ti8 
Fort Philip Kearney, 242 
Fort Pierre, 92, 160 
Fort Platte, 94 
Fort Randall, 91, 230 
Fort Recovery, 92 



[389] 



INDEX 



FOR 

Fort Reno, 242, 243 

Fort Riley, 231, 296 

Fort Saint Vrain, 94, 154, 230 

Fort Scott, 296 

Fort Sedgwick, 213 

Fort Sill, 288 

Fort Smith, 78, 79, 113, 156, 179 

Fort Sumner, 349 

Fort Tecumseh, 92, 106 

Fort Titus, 310 

Fort Union, 93, 106, 160, 2oi 

Fort Vancouver, 184 

Fort Vanderburgh, 93 

Fort Wallace, 263, 269, 270, 282, 

283 
Fort Washita, 160 
Fort William, 93 
Fort Williams, 95 
Fort Wise, 232, 234 
Fort Zarah, 207 

Fountain Creek, Colo., 78, 94, 95 
Fourth Iowa Cavalry, 237 
Fowler, Jacob, 94, 113 
Franklin, Kan., 310 
Franklyn (Franklin), Mo., 114-117 
"Free" trappers, 80-82, 104, 105 
Fremont, Lieut. John C, 82, 153- 

156, 182, 356, 360, 362 
Fremont's Peak, 155 
French explorers, 51, 53-60 
Frey, Johnny, Pony Express rider, 

220 
Friday's Station, 220, 222 
Friends' Society, Kansas secret 

society, 302 
Fur trade, 32, 33, 53, 61, 63, 64, 80- 

107 

Gaillard, soldier with Bourgmont, 
56 

Gale, , fur-trader, 89 

Galpin, , fur-trader, 89 

Gant, Capt., 32, 94 
Gardner, Kan., 186 
Garrett, Pat, sheriff, 349 
Geary, John W., 311, 312 
Genoa, Nev., 220 



Gervais, 



fur-trader, 89 



GWI 



Getty, Gen., 28J 

Gila River, 356 

Gilman's, 211 

Gilmer, Jack, stage driver, 201 

Glass, Hugh, 98-101 

Glenn, , of Glenn's trading- 
post, 113 

Glenn's trading -post, 95, 113 

Godey, , with Fremont, 153 

Gold, discovery of, and gold-seekers, 
44, no, 144, 146, 150, 157, 174, 
183, 212, 215, 234, 297 

Gore, Sir George, 359 

Government aid and development 
of the Plains, 61-83, 117-120, 141, 
152, 153, 156, 176, 194, 198, 215, 
216, 225, 233, 328, 329, 331 

Graham, Capt., 283 

Grand Island, Neb., 77, 88, 147, 
160, 183, 187, 188 

Grand Pawnees, 36 

Grand River, 54, 56, 90, 98 

Grape Creek, Colo., 74 

Grasses peculiar to the Plains, 24 

Grasshopper Falls, Kan., 302 

Grattan, Lieut., 228, 229 

Gray, W. G., 142 

Great Bend, on the Arkansas River, 
26,57.72,207,285,317,342 

Great Falls, Montana, 67 

Great Salt Lake Trail, 334 

Great Salt Lake Valley, 82, 146, 
150, 157, 159, 194, 197, 199, 216, 
359 

Greeley, Horace, 197, 201 

Greer, Major, 205, 206 

Gregg, Josiah, 117, 122, 125, 138 

Griffin, Mr. and Mrs., 143 

Grosventre tribe, 31, 32 

Grover, Sharpe, 262, 264, 265 

Grummond, Lieut, and Mrs., 244, 
246, 249-251 

"Gunshot Frank," border char- 
acter, 373, 374 

Guthrie, , fur-trader, 89 

Gwinn, Senator, 216 



[390] 



INDEX 



HAL 

Hallo WELL, Lieut., 284, 285 
Hamilton, Sam, Pony Express rider, 

220 
Hancock, , trapper from Ill- 
inois, 83 
Hand-cart company of Mormons, 

146, 147 
Harney, Gen., 229 
"Harper's Magazine," quoted, 367, 

368, 370, 372, 373 

Harris, , fur-trader, 89 

Harvey, , 105 

Haslam, Robert H., Pony Express 

rider, 220, 222 
Hays City, 317, 352 
Hazen, Gen., 287 
Heart River, 65 
Hebron, Neb., 187 

Hempstead, , fur-trader, 88 

Henry, Alexander, 87, 104 
Henry, Maj. Andrew, 98 
Henry's Fort, 100, 102 
Hickock, William, 351-356, 373 
Hickory Ridge, Kan., 307 
Hicks, "Pistol," desperado, 350 
"High Salaried Driver of the Denver 

City Line, The," popular song, 

201 
Hines, Asst. Surgeon, 247 
"History of Kansas," Holloway, 

Hitchcock, Ripley, quoted, 45, 69 
Hobbs, James, 355, 362 
Hobbs, William, 372 
Hobbs, — — — , plainsman, 129 

Hockaday, , stage line owner, 

197 
Hoffman, Maj., 229, 231 
HoUaday, Ben, 196-200, 203 
Holloway, J. N., quoted, 304 
Horse Creek, 189, 221 
Horses, wild 27, 131; domesticated, 

130- 131, 136, 181 
Hough, Emerson, quoted, 319, 325, 

337, 343, 347, 349 
Howard, Maj., 168 
Hudson Bay Company, 105 



KAN 

Hughes, John T., 165, 166 
Hungate family, murdered by Ind- 
ians, 235 
Hunt, William P., 86 
Hutchinson, Kan., 129 

Illinois, fur-traders, 69, 83; in 

cattle trade, 316 
Independence, Mo., loi, 117, 122, 

124, 127, 129, 147, 164, 173, 179, 

184-189, 192, 194, 224, 294 
"Indian Country, The," 293 
Indian Territory, 17, 274, 336, 341 
Inman, Col. Henry, 116, 125, 134, 

^35, 138, 149, 164, 165, 207, 217, 

222, 334, 358, 363 
Iowa, 63, 145, 292, 327 
Iowa tribe, 31, 56 

Irving, Washington, quoted, 183 
Ivanhoe, Kan., 124 

Jackson, David E., 87, 102, 117 
Jackson, Tenn., 115 
James, Edwin, 77, 78 
James River, 34, 91, 92 
"Jay-hawking," origin of term, 312 
Jefferson, Thomas, 61 
Jenness, Lieut. John C, 253, 256 
Johnson, President Andrew, 357, 359 
Johnston, Col. Albert Sidney, 158 

Jones, , Kansas sheriff, 308 

Juan de la Cruz, Fray, 50 
Julesburg, Colo., 176, 210, 211, 213, 

223, 237, 239, 295, 298, 345 
Julesburg Ranch, 221 

Kansas, 17, 26, 40, 49, 63, 72, 102, 
118, 120, 124, 140, 158, 183, 212, 
233, 234, 261, 274, 289, 292, 293, 
296, 299-313, 316, 318, 336, 345, 

351, 353, 376, 377, 379 

Kansas, on the Missouri River, 155 

Kansas City, Mo., 173, 179 

Kansas-Pacific Construction Com- 
pany, 364 

Kansas Pacific Railroad, 177, 285, 
366, 367 



[391] 



INDEX 



KAN 

Kansas River, 37, 56, 57, 63, 90, 91, 
15s, 186, 228, 231, 291 

Kansas tribe, 31, 37, 56, 84, 90, 230 

Kearney, Gen., 164-166, 168, 171, 
172 

Kelly, Jay G., 220 

Kelsey, Mrs., with the Bidwell 
company, 144 

Kennedy, Sergeant-Major, 280, 281 

Kerr, Capt., 117 

Kickapoo Island, 91 

Kicking Bird, Kiowa Indian, 207 

Kidder, Lieut., 273 

Kimball party of Mormon emi- 
grants, 150 

Kiowa Creek, 235 

Kiowa tribe, 32, 38, 40, 96, 118, 207, 

228, 231, 234, 236, 279, 287, 323, 

363,364 
Kiowan Indian linguistic stock, 31 

Kirkpatrick, , 175 

Kooskooskee River, 68 

La Bonti, trading-post, 94 
La Bonti Creek, 94 

La Jeunesse, , fur-trader, 89 

La Junta, Colo., 95 

La Lande, Baptiste, 109 

Lamme, Samuel C, 116 

Lancaster, 94 

Laramie, Joseph, 190 

Laramie River, 93, 144, 155, 189 

Laramie, Wyoming, 148, 214, 221, 

229, 238 
Larimer, William, 297 

Larison, , fur-trader, 89 

Larned, Kan., 167 

La Roche Jaune (Yellowstone) 

River, 67 
Las Animas, Colo., 95 
Las Vegas, victory of, 169, 170 
Laurain, Canadian on Missouri 

River, 54 
Laut, Agnes C, quoted, 104 
Lawrence, Kan., 186, 301, 303, 306- 

308, 310, 312, 313 
Leadville, Colo., 74 



LOS 

Leavenworth, Col., 106, 234 
Leavenworth, Kan., 52, 129, 197, 

230. 231, 298, 301 
Lecompton, Kan., 310, 311 
Lee, Jason and Daniel, 142 

Legarde, , fur-trader, 89 

Le Grande, , frontiersman, 114 

Leroux, Joaquin, 206 

Leroy, Neb., 187 

Lewis and Clark Expedition, ^^, 35, 

59, 61-71, 83, 91, 92, 152 
Lewis, Capt. Meriwether, 62, 66, 67, 

70, 84 
Liberty Farm, 210 
Liggett, , stage line owner, 

197 
Lincoln, Abraham, and Western 

railroads, 328 
Lincoln, news of his election and 

inaugural carried by Pony Ex- 
press, 223, 224 
Liquor among the Indians, 39, 65, 

104, 290 
Lisa, Manuel, 38, 77, 83, 85, 88, 93, 

104 
Little Arkansas River, 46, 115, 123, 

166 
Little Big Horn River, 376 
Little Blue River, 186, 187, 210, 214, 

378 
Little Knife Creek, 69 
Little Missouri River, 92 
Little Prairie, 44 
Little Raven, Arapahoe chief, 279 
Little Robe, 287 
Little Rock, Cheyenne chief, 278- 

280 
Little Thunder, Brule Sioux chief, 

229 
Little Vermilion River, 186 
Lodge Tree Ridge, 246, 247 
Long, Major Stephen H., 36, 76, 77, 

152 
Long Mt., 78 
Long Trail, The, 314-318, 335, 33^, 

341, 342 
Los Angeles, Cal., 195 



b?^] 



INDEX 



LOS 

Lost Spring, 123 

Louisiana, 42 

Louisiana Purchase, 61, 81 

Louisville, Kan., 186 

Loup River, 36, 77 

Lovi^er Ford of the South Platte, 188 

Lower Spring, 124 

Lozzell's Post, 92 

Lummis, Charles, quoted, 174, 180, 

181, 195, 197, 199, 200 
Lynching on the border, 371, 378 
Lynde, Maj., 231 



MIS 



Macaulus, , Pony Express 

rider, 223 
Mackinavi^ fur companies, 104 
Majors, Abe, 180, 196, 197, 216, 298 
Maldonado, Castillo, 42 
Mallet brothers, 58, 108 

Maloney, , fur-trader, 89 

Mandan Indians, 31, s^, 35, 57, 59- 
62, 65, 66, 69, 82, 84, 92, 99, 105- 
107 
Manhattan, Kan., 302 
Marcy, Capt. R. B., 156, 159 
Marcy, Gen., 360 

Marmaduke, , trader, 115 

Martin's party of Mormon emi- 
grants, 150 
Mateo, Antonio, 93 

Matthieu, , fur-trader, 89 

Mauvaises Terres, 19 
Maxwell, Lucian B., 355, 361 
McCabe, Jim, desperado, 350 
McCall, W. H. H., 262 

McClanahan, , trader, no 

McClellan Creek, 364 
"McClure's Magazine;" quoted, 

174 

McDaniel, , of Texas, 129 

McGaa, William, 297 

McKnight, , trader, no,, 113 

McLaughlin, , trader, 113 

McLellan, , fur-trader, 86, 

105 
McMaster, John B., quoted, 75 

McNees Creek, 125 



McNees, the, 116, 125, 126 

McPherson Co., Kan., 166 

Means, Capt. John, 116, 127 

Meek, , fur-trader, 89 

Medicine Bluff Reservation, 288 

Menard, Pierre, 83 

"Merchants' Express," Holladay's, 
196 

Meriwether, , trader, 112 

Merritt, Gen. Wesley, 356 

Mexico and Mexican War, 27, 41-44, 
46, 5°, 74, 82, 108, 119, 133, 137, 
141, 154, iS5> 157, 164, 168-173, 

227,314,315 

Midway Station, Neb., 223 

Miles, Gen., 364 

Milk River, 67 

Miller, , trapper, 86 

Minnard, Thomas A., 303 

Minnesota, 58, 212, 238 

Mirages, 22, 102 

Missionaries, Spanish, 53; to Ore- 
gon, 142, 143; to Kansas, 296 

Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, 

327 
Mississippi River, 41, 42, 44, 46, 

54, 71, 77, 316, 351 
Missouri, 63, 84, 102, 113, 153, 182, 

194, 292, 297, 300-313, 320 
"Missouri Commonwealth, The," 

quoted, 192 
Missouri Fur Company, 77, 86, 88 
"Missouri Intelligencer, The," 

quoted, 115 
"Missouri Republican, The," 

quoted, 127 
Missouri River, 17, 19, 20, 25, 29, 

31, 33-35, 37, 44, 54-57, 59, 63, 65, 
67, 69-71, 76, 77, 82, 83, 85-88, 
90, 92, 93, 97. 99, 103-106, 109, 
114, 118, 130, 131, 140, 141, 143, 
146, 154, 155, 160, 173-175, 181, 
182, 198, 200, 201, 212, 215-217, 
223, 228, 230, 238, 289, 291, 293, 
295, 296, 298, 299, 318, 327, 331- 
333, 337, 350, 356, 360, 362, 379 
Missouri tribe, 51, 56 



[393] 



INDEX 



MIT 

Mitchell, , trader, 127 

M'Kandlas and his gang, despera- 
does, 353, 354 
Monk, Hank, stage driver, 201 

Monroe, , trader, 125, 126 

Montana, 60, 67, 239, 319, 324, 349 
Montana Road, 246 
Monument Creek, 273 
Mooers, J. H., 262, 265, 266 
Moore, James, Pony Express rider, 

223 
Mora, Mexico, 128 
Mormons, 145-151, i57-i59. 182, 

183, 231, 293, 294 
Morrison Expedition, 109 
Morrison, William, 83, 109 
Mount Hood, 69 
Mud Springs, 213 
Mules as pack animals, 132, 134-137, 

179, 181 
Muleteers, 132 
Munger, Mr. and Mrs., 143 

Munroe, see Monroe, . 

Mussel-shell River, 67 

Narvajez, Panfilo de, 41 
Natchitoches, Louisiana, 54, 76 
"Neb," border character, 370 
Nebraska, 17, 19, 36, 49, 63, 72, 140, 
145, 183, 187, 212, 233, 289, 292, 
293. 299> 300, 2>2>(>, 341, 349» 353, 
376, 377, 379 
Nebraska City, 296 
Neosho River, 24 
Netul River, 69 
Nevada, 87, 316 
New^ Boston, Kan., 301 
New Mexico, 18, 24, 39, 47, 58, no, 
112, 118, 122, 133, 159, 160, 164, 
168, 172, 175, 226-228, 325, 341 
New York fur companies, 104 
New York, time from, by coach, 217 

Newell, , fur-trader, 89 

Newton, Kan., 317, 342 
Nez Perce Indians, 68 

Nichols, , settler, 144 

Nicollet, , 153 



PAC 

Ninth Wisconsin Battery, 284 
Niobrara River, 34, 35, 37, 91, 92, 

291,378 
Noisy Pawnees, 36 
North American Fur Company, 87 
North Dakota, 17, 18, 58, 160, 238, 

289, 298, 319, 349, 378 
North Fork of Canadian River, 24, 

274 
North Platte River, 34, 86, 93, 150, 

160, 185, 189, 210, 221 
Northern Pacific Railroad, 65 
Northwestern Fur Company, 86 

Ogallala Sioux Indians, 34, 240 

Ogden, Utah, 329 

Ohio Valley, 37 

Oil Creek, Colo., 74 

Oklahoma, 17, 39 

"Old Jules," division agent of Pony 

Express, 221, 345 
Omaha, Neb., 64 
Omaha tribe, 31, 37, 56, 239 
Onawa, Iowa, 91 
Opdike, Billy, stage driver, 201 
Oregon, 82, 142-144, i47, 15°, i55, 

159, 183, 299 
Oregon (Columbia) River, 68 
Oregon Trail, 88, loi, 142-144, 174, 

182-187, 189-191, 215, 228, 293, 

294 
Osage River, 37, 71, 90 
Osage tribe, 31, 37, 38, 51, 54, 56, 

71, 115, 228, 276 
Ossawatomie, Kan., 309, 311, 312 
Otoe tribe, 31, 56 
"Overland Stage to California, 

The," 176 
Overland Trail, 175, 183, 212-215, 

238, 295, 363 
Oxen, use of, on the Plains, 89, 133, 

136,177,179,181 

Pacific Fur Company, 86 
Pacific House, Council Bluflfs, Iowa, 

328 
Pacific Railroad, 327, 328, 334 



[394] 



INDEX 



PAC 

Pacific Springs, 231 
Pack-trains, 130, 132-136 
Palmyra, Kan., 309 
Papin's Ferry, 186, 294 
Parker, Samuel, 142 
Parkman, Francis, quoted, 57, 361 
Parkville, Kan., 303 

Parmalee, , fur-trader, 89 

Parteau, , trapper, 84 

Pate, , Kansas pro-slavery 

leader, 309 

Patterson, , trader, no 

Pawnee Fork, 123, 166, 167, 232, 

236, 261, 362 
Pawnee House, 91 
Pawnee Loups, 36 
Pawnee Rock, 123 
Pawnee tribe, 32, 36, 40, 53, 54, 

58, 64, 71, 72, 77, 118, 123, 237, 

239 

Peale, T. R., 77 

Pecos, Mexico, 171 

Pecos River, 43, 160, 170 

Pennsylvania wagons, 181 

Peno Creek Valley, 247 

Perkins, , fur-trader, 88 

Phillebert, , hunter, iii 

Pierce City, Idaho, 68 

Pierre's Hole, 97 

Pike, Zebulon M., 36, 71-75, 94, 
109, no, 152 

Pike's Peak, 73, 78 

Pilcher, , fur-trader, 88 

Pilot Hill, 24s 

Piney Island, 245, 252 

Pittsburg wagons, 136, 181 

Placerville, Cal., 196, 200, 220 

Platte River, 37, 50, 58, 64, 77, 83, 
85, 87-89, 91, 92, 97, 100, lOI, 
106, 108, 109, 140, 144, 147, 160, 
182, 183, 187, 188, 229, 238, 273, 
288, 291, 294, 298, 326, 378 

Plum Creek, 332 

Ponca Post, 91 

Ponca tribe, 31, 37 

Pony Bob (Robert H. Haslam), 220, 
222 



REE 

Pony Express riders and service, 
147, 186, 216-224, 295, 298, 363 

Poplar River, 67 

Portuguese Houses, 93 

Posts for fur-traders and travellers, 
89-96, 289 

Potts, — ■ , of the Lewis and 

Clark Expedition, 83 

Powder River, 93, 100, 238, 239, 243 

Powell, Capt. James, 253, 254 

Prairie City, Kan., 309 

Prairie schooners, 135, 136, 173, 179 

Pratte, , trader, 127 

Presho County, S. Dak., 65 

Price, Sterling, 164 

Pryor, Ensign, 105 

Pueblo, Colo., 73, 94, 108, 148, 297 

Pueblo, the, 95, 227 

Purcell, James, 109, no 

Purgatory Creek, Colo., 78 

Purgatory River, 38, 73 

QuAHRADA, or Staked Plains, 288 

Querechos, 49 

Quesnel, soldier with Bourgmont, 

56 
Quivira tribe, 49 

Railroad construction, 153, 160, 
260, 316, 324, 326-335, 376, 377 

Raton Range, 205 

Raton Pass, 362 

Raynolds, Capt., 185 

Red Buttes, on North Platte River, 
221 

Red Cloud, 240, 242, 245, 252-254, 
256-258 

Red River, 42, 45, 49, 54, 55, 62, 74, 
77, 78, 156, 160, 287, 316, 317 

Red River of the North, 34 

Red River raft, 55 

Reed, , of Union Pacific Com- 
pany, 328 

Reed's Station, 220 

Reeder, Gov., of Kansas Territory, 

304 
Rees tribe, 34 



b9Sli 



INDEX 



REN 

Reno, Nev., 222 

Republican Pawnees, 36 

Republican River, 235, 261, 263, 
282, 288, 378 

Review, joint, of Mexican and U. S. 
troops, 119 

Richards party of Mormon emi- 
grants, 150 

Richardson, Albert D., 197 

Richardson, , Pony Express 

rider, 220 

Riley, Maj. Bennet, 119 

Rio Conejos, 74 

Rio Gallinas, 125 

Rio Grande, 17, 43, 54, 74, iii, 315, 

319, 350, 356, 379 

Rio Grande del Norte, 39 

River of the West (Columbia), 68 

Robidoux, Joseph, 91 

Robinson, Gov., of Kansas Terri- 
tory, 313 

Robinson, on the Rosebud, 376 

Robinson, , fur-trader, 89 

Rocky Ridge, 221 

Roff, Harry, Pony Express rider, 
219 

Roman Nose, 262, 266, 267, 272 

Root, Frank A., 175, 176 

Rose, -, of Astoria, 105 

Rosebud Creek, 376 

Rossville, 186 

Round Grove, 119, 186, 294 

Ruby Valley, Utah, 220 

Ruff, Lieut. -Col., 166 

Rush Co., Kan., 138 

Rush Creek, 213 

Russell, , owner of coach 

line, 179, 216, 298 

"Rustlers," 346, 347 



-, fur-trader. 



Sabille, — 

Sabine River, 42 

Sacajawea (Bird Woman), guide 

and interpreter, 66, 67 
Sacramento, Cal., 219, 223 
Sage Creek, 213 
Sage, Rufus, 188, 189 



SER 

Saint-Ange, Ensign, 56 

St. Bernard, Kan., 309 

Saint-Denis, French explorer, 54 

St. Joseph, Mo., 91, 17s, 179, 187, 
196-198, 216, 219, 220, 223 

St. Louis, 26, 62, 63, 67, 69, 71, 76, 
85, 86, 88, 104, 106, 110-113, 129, 
154, 170, 194, 195, 198, 208, 289, 
359 

"St. Peters," American Fur Com- 
pany's steamboat, 107 

Saint Vrain, Ceran, 116 

Saint Vrain, Marcellus, 94 

Saint Vrain River, 94 

Salezar, Gen., son of, 170 

Saline River, 261 

Salt Lake City, Utah, 220 

"Salt Lake Trail," Inman, 222 

Sand Creek, 237 

San Francisco, Cal., 132, 195, 198, 
216, 217 

Sangre de Cristo Range, 74, 11 1 

San Jose, Mexico, 170 

San Luis Valley, 74 

San Miguel, N. M., 115, 117, 125 

Santa Clara Spring, 125 

Santa Fe, 51, 53, 58, 72, 75, 84, 103, 
108-117, 121, 140, 164, 168, 192- 
194, 204, 224, 293, 363 

Santa Fe Trail and trade carried 
on over it, 36, 40, 51, 95, 102, 106, 
108-129, 133, 140, 141, 154, 165, 
173, 176, 177, 186, 197, 204, 205, 
207, 208, 212, 215, 227, 234, 272, 

284, 293, 349, 361 
Santana (White Bear), 207, 279 
Say, Thomas, 77 

Scott, , trapper, loi 

Scott's Bluffs, loi, 189 

Second Cavalry, 273 

Second Colorado Cavalry, 234 

Second Dragoons, 158, 205, 206 

Second Missouri Artillery, 239 

Sedgwick, Maj., 231 

Seneca, 223 

Serre, , with Bonneville's 

expedition, 89 



[396] 



INDEX 



SEV 

Seventh Cavalry, 274, 278-280, 376 

Seventh Infantry, 231 

Seventh Iowa Cavalry, 238, 239 

Seventh Michigan Cavalry, 239 

Seymour, Samuel, 77 

Shannon, Wilson, Governor of Kan- 
sas Territory, 305, 307, 310 

Sheridan, Gen., 262, 272-274, 286- 
288, 357, 369 

Sheridan, railroad construction 
town, 369-375 

Sheriffs and marshals, 350 

Shoshonean Indian linguistic stock, 
31, 39 

Sibley, Mo., 90 

Simpson, George, 95 

Siouan Indian linguistic stock, 31, 

33 

Sioux City, Iowa, 64 

Sioux Falls, S. Dak., 299 

Sioux tribe, 31, 33-35, 58, 60, 64- 
66, 82, 83, 88, 92, 93, 210-212, 
221, 226, 228, 229, 237-240, 242, 
243, 245, 246, 252, 259-261, 289, 

298, 323. 378 
Sixth Infantry, 119, 229, 231 
Sixth Michigan Calvary, 238, 239 
Sixth Ohio Cavalry, 237 
Slade, Jack, desperado, 221, 345 
Slim Buttes, 376 
Smallpox, 33, 37, 59, 106, 107 
Smith, Jedediah S., 87, loi, 102, 

117 
Smith, Mr. and Mrs., 143 
Smith, "Uncle" John, 355, 356, 

359 

Smith, , trader, no 

Smith, , 364, 365 

Smith's Creek, 220 

Smoky Hill River, Colo., 177, 230, 

235, 298 
Smuggling, 95 
Snake Indians, 66 
Snively, Col., 128 
Social Band, Kansas secret society, 

302 
Solomon River, 261, 263, 378 



TAG 
Sonora, Mexico, 132 
Sons of the South, Kansas secret 

society, 302 
"Sour Bill," border character, 373, 

374 
South Dakota, 17, 18, ^^, 58, 64, 

83, 160, 238, 289, 298, 349, 378 
South Fork of the Republican River, 

282 
South Pass, 74, 87, 88, 155, 209 
South Platte River, 32, 38, 58, 74, 

77, 84, 87, 94, no, 155, 188, 189, 

213, 230, 235 
"Southern Overland Mail," 194- 

204, 217, 225, 238 
Spalding, Mr. and Mrs., 142 
Spanish explorers, 25, 41-53 
Split Rock, Wyoming, 210 
Spring, , quoted, 307, 311, 

3^3 
Stage lines, 192-215 
Staked Plains, 48, 156, 160, 227, 288 
Stampedes, 137, 138, 169, 323 
Stanton, N. Dak., 66 
Starr, Rev. Frederick, 303 
Stephen, a negro with De Vaca, 42, 

46, 47 
Stillweli, Jack, 269 
Stockton, Cal., 194 
Storrs, Augustus, 115, 116 
"Story of the Soldier, The," 177 
"Story of the Trapper," 104 
Stuart, Robert, fur-trader, 86 
Sublette, William L., 87, 93, 102, 

104, 117 
Sully, Gen., 238 
Summit Springs, 284 
Sumner, Col., 230, 231 
Sweetwater, 221 
Sweetwater River, 87, 142, 149, 158, 

209, 221 
Swift Bear, 239 
Swift, Lieut. W. H., 77 

Tall Bull, 284, 288 
Taos, N. M., Ill, 118, 168, 169, 
189, 205, 358 



[397] 



INDEX 



TAP 

Tapage, or Noisy Pawnees, 36 
Tecumseh, Kan., 310 
Telegraph installed across the 

Plains, 213, 219 
Teller, Gen., 237 
Ten Eyck, Capt., 247-249 
Tenth Cavalry, Troops H and I, 

271, 282 
Tenth Infantry, 157 
Teton River, 106 
Teton tribe, 34, 65 
Texans' attacks on Santa Fe cara- 
vans, 128, 129 
Texas, 17, 24, 27, 39, 42, 47, 76, 109, 

128, 141, 160, 226, 231, 287, 315, 

316, 318, 341 
Thacher, George, Pony Express 

rider, 220 
Three Crossings of the Sweetwater, 

210, 221 
"Three-fingered Pete," desperado, 

350 
Tiguex (Albuquerque), N. M., 48, 49 
Tilton's Fort, 99, 100 
Tobin, Tom, 206, 355, 363 
Tongue River, 239 
Topeka, Kan., 186, 294, 302, 306, 

3". 313 
Trappers, see Fur Trade 
Travois, 132 

Trudeau, , plainsman, 269 

Trudeau's House, 91 
Turkey Creek, Colo., 78, 123, 186 
Tutt, Dave, desperado, 353 
Twenty-seventh Infantry, Company 

C, 252, 253 

Union Pacific Railroad, 153, 188, 

260, 285, 326, 328, 329, 366 
Upper Ford of the South Platte, 189 
Upper Platte Bridge, 230 
Utah, 87, 97, 145, 159, 231 
Utah Lake, 87, 106 
Ute Indians, 32, 228, 357 



Vanderberg, - 
Vera Cruz Trail, 132 



-, fur-trader, 89 



WHI 

Verdigris River, 95, 113 
Vermilion River, 34, 91, 294, 378 
Villard, Henry, 197 
Vigilantes, 348, 378 
Virginia City, 222 
Virginia Dale, Colo., 213 
Viscara, Col., 119 



Wabash River, 37 



Waddell, 



owner of coach 



line, 180, 196, 216 

Wade, , fur-trader, 89 

Wagons on the Plains and in the 

mountains, 87, 113, 133, 135, 136, 

144, 179, 181 
Wakarusa Creek, 186 
Walker, Joel P., and family, 144 
Walker, Mr. and Mrs., 142 
Walker, Robert J., 312 
Walker, , with Bonneville's 

expedition, 89 
Walnut Creek, 123, 127, 208, 284, 

28s 
Wands, Lieut., 245 

Ward, , fur-trader, 89 

Warfield, , and family, 144 

Warfield, , of Texas, 128 

Warner, Lieut., 327 
Washita Range, 19 
Washita River, 45, 62, 160, 273, 

278, 281, 282, 286, 287, 364 
Waukarusa, Kan., 301 
Webb City, Mo., 353 
Wells, Fargo & Co., 199, 203, 222 
"Western Engineer," river steam- 
boat, 76 
Westport, Mo., 173, 359 
Wet Mountain Valley, 74 
Wharton, Capt., 120 
Wheatley, , frontiersman, 

246, 250 
"White Chief, The" (George P. 

Belden), 211 
White, Elijah, 144 
White family, captured by Indians, 

205, 206 
White River, 34, 92 



[398] 



INDEX 



WHI 

White Wolf, Apache chief, 205-207 

Whitman, Marcus, and wife, 142, 143 

Wichita Buttes, 19 

Wichita, Kan., 46, 49, 342 

Wichita River, 55, 156 

Wild Bill (William Hickock), 351- 

356, 373 
Wilkinson, Gen., 75 
Williams, Bill, mountameer, 156, 

355, 362 
Williams, Ezekiel, 84, 116 
Williams, Frank, 209 
Willow Creek, 150 
Wind River, 88 
Wolf Creek, 274, 275 
Women on the Plains, 77, 142, 290 
Wood Island, 188 
Wood River, 148 
Wooton, "Uncle Dick," 206, 355, 

361, 362 
Workman, David, 116 
Wounded Knee, 376 



ZIO 

Wyeth, Nathaniel J., 89, 105 
Wyoming, 18, 60, 86, 298, 299, 319, 

324 
Wythe's Creek, 187 

Yankee Town, Kan., 301 

Yankton, S. Dak., 64 

Yankton tribe, 34, 230 

Yanktonais Indians, 34 

Yellow Hand, Cheyenne chief, 363 

"Yellowstone," first steamboat on 

upper Missouri, 106 
Yellowstone Park, 83 
Yellowstone River, 66, 76, 83, 84, 

87. 93, 98, loi, 102, 106, 185, 356 
Young, Brigham, 82, 145, 150, 159 
Young, Capt., of the "Yellowstone," 

106 
Yuma, Arizona, 195 

Zacatecas wagons, 133 
Zionville, Kan., 125 



[399] 



^ 



i-.,.- 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: 

^^P 1998 
iBOKKEEPER 

PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES. L.P. 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 




